Red Rifle striking while he’s hot

ELMONT, N.Y. – There will be five graded stakes run at Belmont Park on Saturday, and it’s not far-fetched to think trainer Todd Pletcher could have the first or second choice in all of them.

Already well armed with Rock Fall in the Grade 1, $400,000 Vosburgh and Curalina in the Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame, Pletcher has decided to run Red Rifle in the Grade 1, $600,000 Joe Hirsch and Dame Dorothy in the Grade 2, $300,000 Gallant Bloom. Pletcher will run Azar and possibly Dissident in the Grade 3 Pilgrim Stakes.

Entries for all five of Saturday’s graded stakes were to be taken on Wednesday.

With Red Rifle coming off two huge races at Saratoga, a win in the Grade 2 Bowling Green and a second to Flintshire in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, it would not have been surprising if Pletcher had opted to wait until the Breeders’ Cup Turf to run Red Rifle.

“We waited as long as possible on whether to run him or train up to the Breeders’ Cup,” Pletcher said Sunday. “I just felt like, let’s go ahead and run now. The ground looks like it will be firm. Who knows what could happen between now and the Breeders’ Cup?”

A front-running type last year, Red Rifle has gotten better as he’s been allowed to come from off the pace. On July 1, he won the Grade 3 Dominion Day over Woodbine’s synthetic surface from next to last. On Aug. 1, he rallied from seventh to win the Bowling Green by 2 1/2 lengths. Four weeks later, in the $1 million Sword Dancer, Red Rifle finished 3 1/4 lengths clear of third-place finisher Twilight Eclipse. Red Rifle paired up 107 Beyer Speed Figures in his last two starts.

There was controversy over the jockey situation in the Sword Dancer, and Pletcher had to use Jose Ortiz on Red Rifle instead of Javier Castellano, who had given calls in the race to both Red Rifle and Twilight Eclipse. Castellano was initially forced by the stewards to sit out the race, but when Joel Rosario, who was named to ride Twilight Eclipse, got injured earlier on the card, Castellano rode Twilight Eclipse.

Castellano will ride Red Rifle on Saturday, while Rosario will be on Twilight Eclipse. Those two will take on the Chad Brown trio of Big Blue Kitten, Slumber, and Shining Copper in the Joe Hirsch. Perfect Title and possibly Quiet Force and Tobias will complete the field.