Speaker's Corner points to Metropolitan Handicap

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Bill Mott has been chasing a victory in the prestigious Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap his entire career. Perhaps, 2022 is the year.

Mott will point Speaker’s Corner, uber-impressive winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, to the Grade 1, $1 million Metropolitan Handicap on June 11 at Belmont Park. From 1992 through 2020, Mott has run 11 horses in the Met Mile, with third-place finishes from To Honor and Serve and Flat Out as his best results.

Speaker’s Corner earned a gaudy 114 Beyer Speed Figure for his tour-de-force in the Carter, in which he raced four-wide down the backside, dragged Junior Alvarado to the lead four furlongs from home and was just hand-ridden to the wire in winning by 4 1/2 lengths. He ran seven furlongs in 1:21.34.

“I just pulled it up again to watch it,” Mott said Sunday afternoon. “He was quite impressive. It looked good. He had a great post, had a good trip, it was nice and smooth, but he out and out just outran them.”

:: Want to start playing with a $510 bankroll and have access to free Formulator? Learn more

The Carter was the third win in as many starts this year for Speaker’s Corner, a son of Street Sense owned and bred by Godolphin Racing who in January won the Grade 3 Fred Hooper and in February the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile. Mott said having two months between the Carter and the Met Mile may not be such a bad thing.

“You wouldn’t want it to be any more than that, but by the same token you wouldn’t want to throw another race in there either,” Mott said.

Reinvestment Risk, who finished second in the Carter, could be considered for the Grade 1, $750,000 Churchill Downs at seven furlongs on May 7 or stay home for the Grade 3, $200,000 Westchester at Belmont the same day, trainer Chad Brown said Sunday.

“I was real proud of Reinvestment Risk, he made two or three moves in the race which is hard to do,” Brown said. “Clearly second-best, but I was very proud of him making that many moves. It was a tricky draw, we decided to go on with it and he had to pause a couple of times, I was really proud of his effort. What we do with him from here I’m not sure.”