Stakes horses using allowance as springboard
ELMONT, N.Y. – Stakes winners Notacatbutallama and Reload return from layoffs of varying degrees as they try to jump-start their careers in a $90,000, fourth-level allowance race scheduled for a mile on the turf Friday at Belmont Park.
Notacatbutallama, who has been just a cut below the better New York-bred turf horses the last few years, returns as a new gelding for trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole. Pletcher said that Notacatbutallama has always been a horse who carried extra weight and was coming up “a tick short” against the top New York-bred turf horses.
“He’s a horse that we hope to keep around for a long time and felt as a gelding it’d be easier to do that, and maybe we could close that gap a little bit as a gelding,” Pletcher said. “It’s changed his body type a little bit; he doesn’t carry the same mass that he used to. We’ll see if it makes a difference in his performances.”
The horse is making his first start since December.
Reload, a 6-year-old son of Hard Spun, returns from a 15-month layoff precipitated by a soft-tissue injury. He has won both of his turf starts, including the Grade 3 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream on Feb. 22, 2014, his last start.
Storming Inti, who is 2 for 2 at Belmont Park, Unbridled Ocean, Plainview, and Slim Shadey complete the field.
Key contenders
Notacatbutallama (Last 3 Beyers: 81-94-88)
◗ He is a five-time stakes winner, including a victory in the Grade 3 Hill Prince over this course as a 3-year-old.
◗ He went only 1 for 9 last year, but the win came in a stakes-caliber allowance at Saratoga, his last try at the one-mile distance.
Reload (Last 3 Beyers: 100-97-75)
◗ He won the Canadian Turf by a neck at Gulfstream Park, covering a mile in 1:32.20, much to the surprise of his trainer, Shug McGaughey.
“When Lure won the Breeders’ Cup [Mile], he ran in 1:32-and-4 and set the track record,” said McGaughey, referring to Lure’s final time of 1:32.90 in the 1992 BC Mile at Gulfstream.
◗ McGaughey said Reload might need a race coming off the lengthy layoff.
“He’s an extremely talented horse, but he’s a big, heavy kind of horse,” McGaughey said. “He’ll probably need a race, maybe two. I hope he doesn’t, but I think he probably will.”
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 4 Reload. Trainer Shug McGaughey is 9-3-0-0 with a $4.24 ROI over the past five years with horses returning from a layoff of 365 days or more. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Storming Inti (Last 3 Beyers: 92-90-71)
◗ He has changed barns since finishing fourth, beaten two lengths, in the Grade 3 Miami Mile. Previously trained by Chad Brown, Storming Inti now is conditioned by Jena Antonucci.
◗ He went 2 for 2 over the Belmont turf course as a juvenile in 2013, including a stakes victory going a mile.
◗ He shows bullet half-mile work in 47.60 on the dirt last Friday.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Storming Inti. Trainer Jena Antonucci is 101-1-5-8 with a $0.08 ROI over the past five years in turf routes on the NYRA circuit. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan