River Rocks, Fed Biz possible for BC Dirt Mile after runner-up prep efforts

After barely holding third in a three-way photo behind Vyjack and River Rocks as the odds-on choice and highweight in Saturday’s Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at Belmont Park, Itsmyluckyday will not be supplemented to either the Breeders’ Cup Classic or Dirt Mile and will await the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct on Nov. 29.

The Cigar Mile also will be the next start for the Aqueduct-based Vyjack, who earned a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure in notching his first stakes win since the 2013 Gotham.

“All along, we’ve thought [Vyjack] had some talent, and he can compete with those horses,” said trainer Rudy Rodriguez, who saddled Belle Gallantey to win the Beldame one race later. “The horse is not easy to train, and thank God he came back good, too. The plan was to run him in the Cigar Mile; that’s why we put him in the mile race.”

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River Rocks, who was coming off three straight allowance victories in sprints to start his 4-year-old season for new trainer John Terranova, was able to run the first quarter-mile in a leisurely 23.55 seconds and held stubbornly to be clearly second-best in the Kelso. He is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, so he could either be supplemented to the Sprint or Dirt Mile or possibly run in Belmont’s Grade 3 Bold Ruler on Oct. 25.

With it now appearing that Bayern will opt for the Classic, Bob Baffert still has a major Dirt Mile contender in Fed Biz, who battled up front along the rail in Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again and was beaten a neck by Shared Belief, the 1-5 favorite who was carried out very wide by the Baffert-trained Sky Kingdom and Victor Espinoza.

“I see it happen to my horses when you have a good one,” said Baffert. “I didn’t tell Victor to do that.”

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Fed Biz, who finished off the board in each of the last two editions of the Dirt Mile at Santa Anita, earned a third chance in the race after finishing a clear second and earning a 101 Beyer, his first triple-digit figure on dirt.

“It’s a shame because he did all the hard work,” said Baffert. “But you have to give credit to Shared Belief. It looked like we had him. Fed Biz ran his race. He ran hard.”