Thomas confident Hard Love ready to take on Bolshoi Ballet in Belmont Derby
ELMONT, N.Y. – From the time Hard Love won his debut over the Belmont Park turf last October, trainer Jonathan Thomas started thinking about the Belmont Derby. Though not everything has gone according to plan, little has gone wrong for the son of Kitten’s Joy who could be the one to upset expected heavy favorite Bolshoi Ballet in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Derby for 3-year-olds.
The Belmont Derby and its sister race, the Grade 1, $700,000 Belmont Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, top an 11-race card that also includes the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on dirt. First post is 1 p.m.
There is little argument that the Aidan O’Brien-trained Bolshoi Ballet is the horse to beat in the Belmont Derby, run at 1 1/4 miles over the inner turf course. He is a two-time winner at the distance, has handled all types of ground, and seemed to have an excuse for his seventh-place finish as the favorite in the Group 1 Epsom Derby five weeks ago.
“He’s a real horse, sure,” Thomas said of Bolshoi Ballet. “The best way I can put it is I really wouldn’t trade places with anybody. . . . Maybe Aiden, for a little bit, but not for this horse.”
Thomas wasn’t being cocky, rather confident that Hard Love, who has won 3 of 4 starts, is coming into the Belmont Derby in fine fashion. While Hard Love didn’t get an intended prep race in the Grade 3 Pennine Ridge on May 29 – a race Thomas scratched him out of when it was rained off to the dirt – Hard Love did get a race, beating the 4-year-old Desert Peace by a head in a 1 1/8-mile allowance on June 5.
“The fact he was able to engage a horse, get into a dogfight for the last eighth of a mile, and to ultimately come out on top I thought should set us up really well,” Thomas said. “If that wasn’t a tightener, I don’t know what is.”
Course condition could play a role in the Belmont Derby. Between 1 and 2 inches of rain were expected Thursday night into Friday morning, remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa. But that was supposed to exit the area by early Friday afternoon, leaving 24 hours-plus of potentially drying out time.
“I prefer a little cut in the ground as opposed to rock-hard ground,” said Thomas, who won this race in 2018 with Catholic Boy. “I guess it’s more a question of does it move up the [Europeans] and put us at a disadvantage? It’s all speculation.”
Bolshoi Ballet, a son of Galileo, won the Group 3 P.W. McCrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes in April and the Group 3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial – both 10-furlong races at Leopardstown in Ireland – to send him off the favorite in the Group 1 Epsom Derby.
In that 1 1/2-mile race, Bolshoi Ballet was reported to have been run up from behind and emerged from the race sore with a cut on his right hind leg, missing a little bit of training time. His connections feel he is over that issue and look forward to a bounce-back effort.
“He won the Ballysax well, he won the Derrinstown very impressively,” T.J Comerford, assistant to O’Brien said. “It didn’t work out that great in Epsom for him, but I’m sure he’s still on the right path to picking up from there.”
Comerford said he would prefer firm turf for Bolshoi Ballet but noted he has handled less-than-firm ground successfully.
Ryan Moore will be in from Europe to ride.
Du Jour, a son of Temple City, brings a three-race winning streak into the Derby, including a victory in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill Downs. Trained by Bob Baffert for those races, Du Jour has spent the last month in the care of Bill Mott as Baffert is currently excluded from participating in New York by the New York Racing Association for a host of medication violations elsewhere over the last year. Du Jour, owned in part by Baffert’s wife, Jill, has been in New York for five weeks.
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Du Jour had a very good work on the Belmont turf on June 20, but it remains to be seen how he’ll handle ground that could be on the softer side.
Flavien Prat is in from California to ride.
Perhaps the biggest wildcard is Sainthood. He won the off-the-turf Pennine Ridge and has run well over a synthetic surface at Turfway Park. He has never raced on turf, but has breezed well over it, in the eyes of his trainer Todd Pletcher.
“I think there are a lot of reasons to think he will handle it, you never know for sure until they do it,” Pletcher said. “I would be disappointed if he didn’t handle it based on the way he breezed on it.”
Safe Conduct has been a longshot player’s dream, winning a maiden race at Gulfstream at 16-1 and a first-level allowance here at 38-1. He is coming off a fourth in the off-the-turf Pennine Ridge.
Cellist, Palazzi, and Hidden Enemy finished 1-2-4, respectively, in the Audubon Stakes run over good ground at Churchill seven weeks ago.
Tokyo Gold, who won the Group 2 Italian Derby at 1 3/8 miles last out, completes the field.