Perfect record, long layoff

ELMONT, N.Y. - Summer Note, who won the Grade 2 Hutcheson in his last start, in January 2000, returns in Friday's featured eighth race at Belmont Park.

The third-level allowance, part of a nine-race sunset racing card that begins at 3 p.m., drew eight runners. The race, which has a $49,000 purse, will be run at six furlongs.

Summer Note, who will be ridden by Jorge Chavez, drew post 6.

Summer Note, a 5-year-old son of Notebook, is undefeated in three starts.

Previously trained by Richard Hazelton and Randy Morse, Summer Note began his career at Hawthorne in 1999 and won his first two starts by a combined margin of 9 1/2 lengths. In his 3-year-old debut, Summer Note won the Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park in a dead heat with More Than Ready, who became a Grade 1 winner later that year.

Following the Hutcheson, Summer Note was sidelined by injury. The horse began serious training for a return earlier this spring in Florida, and was sent to trainer Barclay Tagg in New York two weeks ago.

Tagg said he didn't know the nature of the injury that sidelined Summer Note for 28 months, but said the horse, owned by Greg Besinger, is in perfect physical shape.

"I don't know a whole lot about him, but I know he's a very nice horse," Tagg said. "He's beautiful, a little bit ornery."

Tagg worked Summer Note on Sunday at Belmont Park and said the horse covered four furlongs in "48 and change and galloped out 1:00 and change."

Before Summer Note came into Tagg's barn he worked a bullet six furlongs in 1:14.60 at Hawthorne on April 27.

For Love and Honor, who drew the rail and Aaron Gryder, scratched out an allowance race on Wednesday at 1 1/16 miles in favor of this spot.

For Love and Honor has been stymied at this level since January. His five races at this condition have resulted in four seconds and a third, and he is definitely eligible to break through in this spot. Griffinite, who beat For Love and Honor by a half-length in his last start, finished a gutsy second in Wednesday's fifth race, a classified allowance.

Sing Me Back Home drops back in distance after finishing third, behind Griffinite and For Love and Honor on April 13. Sing Me Back Home's last win came at six furlongs at Gulfstream Park during the winter.

American Century, a winner of a minor stakes at Hialeah Park in 2001, makes his first start since August.

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