Seek Again, Imagining top talented cast in Manhattan

ELMONT, N.Y. – The Grade 1 Manhattan will have its 113th renewal Saturday and is the traditional lead-in each year to the Belmont Stakes. But with the Met Mile and Ogden Phipps added to the Belmont undercard this season, the Manhattan might be overshadowed somewhat on Saturday’s program despite the fact that it has drawn yet another classy and evenly matched field, led by Grade 1 winners Seek Again and Imagining.

Seek Again gave Wise Dan all he could handle on Kentucky Derby Day in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic before dropping a head decision to the two-time Horse of the Year. Seek Again also should have little trouble getting the 1 1/4 miles of the $1 million Manhattan. He rallied to a 1 1/2-length triumph going 10 furlongs in his U.S. debut last fall in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby.

Trainer Shug McGaughey, who won last year’s Manhattan with Point of Entry, sends out Imagining, who became a Grade 1 winner when he led throughout the Man o’ War here four weeks ago.[bc_video_id:326446:]

The remainder of the Manhattan field consists of Real Solution, still seeking his first win since upsetting the 2013 Arlington Million; Boisterous, the winner of the 2013 Man o’ War; Hey Leroy, Kaigun, Grandeur, Chamois, Rookie Sensation, and Five Iron.

The Manhattan is one of five Grade 1 races on the Belmont undercard, along with the Met Mile, the Ogden Phipps, the Just a Game, and the Acorn.

A field of 10 was drawn for the one-mile Just a Game on turf, topped by Discreet Marq, Better Lucky, and Stephanie’s Kitten.

Discreet Marq beat Better Lucky by a half-length when the pair finished two-three behind Egg Drop in the Grade 1 Matriarch in their final starts as 3-year-olds. Both have started just once this season, at Keeneland, where Discreet Marq finished second in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley and Better Lucky was second behind Judy the Beauty in the Grade 1 Madison.

My Miss Sophia will be the heavy favorite to defeat a dozen other 3-year-old fillies in the $750,000 Acorn, to be decided at a mile over the main track. My Miss Sophia comes off a second-place finish behind Untapable in the Kentucky Oaks.

Among the most anticipated races on the Belmont undercard is the Grade 1, $500,000 Woody Stephens following owner Ron Sanchez’s decision to bypass the Belmont Stakes with his extremely talented but lightly raced Social Inclusion. Sanchez opted for the seven-furlong Woody Stephens in large part due to Social Inclusion’s gate issues and the fact that the Belmont Stakes field breaks directly in front of what is expected to be a raucous crowd of more than 100,000 on Saturday.

“The Woody Stephens is a good spot for us, although no race is easy,” Sanchez said. “We’ll just try to win this one and then go to the Haskell. Breaking in front of the large crowd is the issue, and after schooling him again [Wednesday] morning, I know I made the right decision.”

Social Inclusion, third in the Preakness, will break from post 13 in a field that also includes Bayern, Havana, Coup de Grace, Favorite Tale, and Pure Sensation.

The $150,000 Easy Goer kicks off the stakes action Saturday, with Life in Shambles likely to be favored off his near miss in the Sir Barton. Kid Cruz, like Social Inclusion withdrawn from consideration for the Belmont this week, was among the nine 3-year-olds entered for the 1 1/16-mile Easy Goer.

The 1 1/2-mile Brooklyn is the first graded stakes on the card and one of the new editions to the Belmont program, drawing a field of eight long-distance specialists, topped by Micromanage, Ground Transport, Cat Burglar, and Ever Rider.

Ben’s Cat, who has won 26 races during his amazing career, will make his first start in New York in the Grade 3 Jaipur, to be decided at six furlongs on turf.