Sequoya Mountain looking strong

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Given a pick six sequence that begins with four maiden-claiming races and a "beaten" $7,500 claimer, Thursday's nominal feature is race 3, a $42,000, one-mile starter allowance that attracted five 3-year-olds.

Framed, a Tale of the Cat homebred who comes off a pair of Silky Sullivan-like late runs for Mark Hennig, is the slight favorite at 9-5 on the morning line.

Full Liquidity, who made steady progress in three starts at Gulfstream Park for Nick Zito, climaxed by a front-running score over $25,000 maidens, is the 2-1 second choice.

Sequoya Mountain has come to hand recently for Rick Violette Jr., and looms a strong part of the early pace along with Full Liquidity.

Second time out this year, Sequoya Mountain set a strong pace and held to finish third behind Framed. In his next start, he led all the way to graduate over $35,000 maidens.

"He went too fast too early and was supposed to evaporate against Framed, but he held on for third - and that was right after he had missed a lot of training because of the weather," said Violette. "Since we've stretched him out, he's a much-improved horse."

Gimmeanotherwink and Fortunate Run, a pair of two-time winners, also entered.

Violette, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association since 2007, will take part in a live web chat Friday at 8 p.m. Eastern.

The chat takes place at www.nyra.com/livechat.

Two work for Comely

She'll Be Doggone and Volare Contare, a pair of 3-year-old fillies trained by Tony Dutrow, worked five furlongs in 1:01.24 seconds on Aqueduct's main track Monday; both are nominated to Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Comely Stakes.

Belmont main track opens for training

Belmont's main track opened for training on Tuesday, with three horses working over "Big Sandy."

Bill Badgett Jr. sent out a pair: Roaring Belle worked three-eighths in 39.88 seconds, and Retriever, idle since running third in an overnight stakes at Aqueduct last November, went a half-mile in 49.09 seconds.

Rovic's Wealth, claimed from a win last out by Mike Maker, went a half in 50.80 seconds.

* The Oklahoma training track at Saratoga is scheduled to open next Thursday.