Rock Your World possible for Belmont Stakes

Rock Your World, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 3 but a troubled 17th in the Kentucky Derby last Saturday, is a candidate for the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 5, depending on how he trains in coming weeks.

“The only definite is he’s out of the Preakness,” trainer John Sadler said of the May 15 race at Pimlico. “We’ll look at the Belmont.”

In the Kentucky Derby, Rock Your World bumped with a rival shortly after the start, raced wide on the turn, and finished 24 1/2 lengths behind race winner Medina Spirit. A two-time stakes winner this year, Rock Your World was beaten for the first time in his fourth start in the Kentucky Derby.

Earlier on the program, the Sadler-trainer Flagstaff won the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Handicap at seven furlongs, relinquishing the lead and then fighting back to regain the front near the wire.

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Sadler said races such as the Grade 2 True North Stakes at Belmont Park on June 4 or the Grade 1 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 31 are possible goals for Flagstaff.

Sadler’s stable includes Flightline, the highly impressive recent maiden race winner at Santa Anita on April 24 in his debut. Flightline will not start in the Grade 3 Lazaro Barrera Stakes for 3-year-olds at 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita on May 15, a race Sadler described as “too soon.”