Private Zone cuts back for Sprint Championship

Private Zone loves Belmont Park, the seven furlongs of the $400,000 Sprint Championship on Saturday suit him well, and he won’t be facing Honor Code or Tonalist. Things are looking good.

“There are a couple of speed horses in the race, but I don’t think they are going to bother us,” said trainer Jorge Navarro. “The more they come to him, the faster he gets. I really think he likes to be challenged, to be pressured. He likes to intimidate horses when they come to him.”

Private Zone is coming off a third-place finish to Honor Code and Tonalist in the Met Mile. He blazed six furlongs in 1:08.74 but couldn’t contain the late runs of Honor Code or Tonalist, both of whom excel at the distance.

“With his running style, I think the seven-eighths is perfect for him,” Navarro said. “He can go to the lead and still have something left at the end.”

Navarro, who is based at Monmouth Park, has trained Private Zone for his three starts this year at age 6. He finished second, beaten a half-length by Honor Code, in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap at a mile, then won the Grade 2 Churchill Downs at seven furlongs on Kentucky Derby Day prior to the Met Mile.

Private Zone is 2 for 3 at Belmont Park, having won the six-furlong Vosburgh in each of the last two Septembers. Private Zone races for Good Friends Stable, which is managed by former rider Rene Douglas. California-based Martin Pedroza is his regular rider.

Clearly Now won the Belmont Sprint Championship a year ago. He enters off a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 True North on June 5, but trainer Brian Lynch is hopeful that a recent medical procedure will allow him to breathe better during his races.

Lynch had a veterinarian examine Clearly Now’s throat with an endoscope following the True North, and it was discovered that he had displaced his palate, which could have affected his airflow.

“He definitely displaced, so we did a myectomy on him,” Lynch said. “His last two works have been really good.”

Lynch also will remove Clearly Now’s blinkers for Saturday’s race.

The Big Beast had a four-race winning streak, dating to June 2014, snapped when he finished fourth in his last start, the Grade 1 Carter Handicap on April 4. The Carter was a taxing race, and trainer Tony Dutrow has given him a freshening.

The Big Beast always has run well after being rested, and with four Fair Hill works under his belt, he should be sitting on a big effort. Expect him to come from just off the pace.

Stallwalkin’ Dude ran well when second to the rapidly improving A. P. Indian at Parx last out and comes into this in good form.

Green Gratto and Moonlight Song are fast and could push Private Zone early. Bay of Plenty had to take up sharply behind Private Zone and Bayern soon after the start of the Met Mile, in which he finished ninth. The field also includes C. Zee.

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Victory Ride (race 6)

Enchanting Lady bounced back with a runner-up effort to Cavorting in the Jersey Girl Stakes at Belmont on June 5 after finishing ninth in the Eight Belles at Churchill Downs.

Based on the Jersey Girl, Enchanting Lady is likely to be favored in the Grade 3 Victory Ride Stakes on Saturday. Her chief rival figures to be Promise Me Silver, who will try to do some bouncing back of her own after finishing 10th in the Acorn Stakes on June 6. The loss was the first for Promise Me Silver in nine career starts.

Promise Me Silver slipped coming out of the gate, according to trainer Bret Calhoun. She then rushed up to grab a one-length lead through a 22.89-second quarter-mile. She was finished by the time the field hit the stretch of the one-mile race.

Enchanting Lady, trained by Bob Baffert, won her maiden in the Landaluce Stakes at Santa Anita in June 2014. She accounted for the Santa Paula Stakes out west in her start prior to the Eight Belles.