Siding Spring, Tombelaine go at it again

ELMONT, N.Y. – Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: A horse trained by Mark Casse and one trained by Chad Brown come down the stretch and fight to the wire, with one winning by a head.

No, this wasn’t the Preakness, where the Brown-trained Cloud Computing caught the Casse-trained Classic Empire. This was a second-level turf allowance race in February at Gulfstream, where the Casse-trained Siding Spring held off the Brown-trained Tombelaine to win by a head.

While a rematch between Cloud Computing and Classic Empire will have to wait until this summer, a meeting between Siding Spring and Tombelaine takes place in Sunday’s $90,000, third-level allowance feature, scheduled for seven furlongs over Belmont Park’s Widener turf course.

Though there are only five horses entered to run if the race remains on the turf, there is ample speed in the race, which could hurt Siding Spring and benefit Tombelaine.

“It should set up for him,” Brown said of Tombelaine. “It looks like a really good spot.”

Tombelaine, a 5-year-old son of First Defence, came out of his loss to Siding Spring on Feb. 18 to clear the second-level allowance condition at Belmont on May 7, getting the jump on Get Jets and holding him at bay to win by a head.

“He’s better around one turn,” said Brown, noting that the race at Gulfstream was run around two turns.

Since that February race, Siding Spring has competed in two stakes, running fourth of six in the Grade 3 Appleton at Gulfstream on April 1 and third in the Elusive Quality at Belmont on April 29. He set the early pace in both of those races only to be caught in the stretch.

John Velazquez, who rode Siding Spring in the Elusive Quality, is back aboard Sunday.

“Johnny, after the race, thought, ‘I should have let him run,’ ” Casse said. “He had a lot of horse, and then everybody kind of came to him. There seems to be a fair amount of speed in this race. He has the ability to rate, but we’ll leave that up to Johnny. That horse is good right now.”

The other speed in the race figures to come from Vision Perfect and Dowse’s Beach.

Vision Perfect won in a similar spot last October when running under the allowance condition. On Sunday, he is in for the $80,000 claiming tag.

Jan’s Reserve, who won his maiden going seven furlongs on turf last fall, completes the field on turf. Voluntario and Gypsum Johnny were entered to run only on the main track.