Tonalist, Palace Malice meet in Westchester
Tonalist and Palace Malice, winners of the last two runnings of the Belmont Stakes, will make their 2015 debuts in the Grade 3 Westchester at Belmont Park on Saturday.
The Belmont card also includes a pair of turf stakes, the Grade 2, $200,000 Sheepshead Bay for fillies and mares at 1 3/8 miles and the Grade 3, $150,000 Fort Marcy at 1 1/8 miles.
The one-mile Westchester has drawn a field of five and is carded as the sixth of 12 races. First post Saturday is noon.
In addition to Tonalist and Palace Malice, the Westchester field includes Juba, Confrontation, and Souper Lucky.
Tonalist, one of the leaders of the 3-year-old division last year, won the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Belmont Stakes, and Peter Pan for trainer Christophe Clement.
Tonalist worked seven times between Dec. 31 and Feb. 10 and then not again until March 15. His half-mile drill at Belmont Park on Wednesday was the seventh of his current work pattern and his first since being shipped back to New York.
“We are very happy to have him back,” Clement said Wednesday. “He has been training very well. It was either the Westchester or the Pimlico Special, and we have opted for the Westchester. I think the mile is a great distance for him to start back.”
New York Racing Association clockers timed Tonalist in 47.44 seconds Wednesday, which was the fastest of 12 works at the distance over the Belmont main track. Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce had a different take on the work.
“He’s officially been credited with a time of 47.40 from the three-eighths pole past the wire, but I picked him up at the half, galloping his first eighth of a mile in 13.80 and 25.40 to the top of the lane,” Vesce said. “He finished up well under mild urging to the wire in 48.60 and galloped out in 1:01.20 for five furlongs.”
Tonalist drew the No. 1 post for the Westchester and will be blinkers-on. He did not wear them in his last two starts of 2014, the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Palace Malice, the 2013 Belmont winner, reeled off wins last season in the Metropolitan Handicap, Westchester, and New Orleans Handicap. After finishing sixth in the Whitney at Saratoga, he was briefly retired with bone bruising in his left hind leg.
After some time off, the decision was made to put him back into training. He has had seven works for trainer Todd Pletcher since Feb. 28. Palace Malice drew post No. 4 for the Westchester.
• The Sheepshead Bay has a field of five and is carded as race 4 on Saturday. Grade 3 Orchid winner Beauty Parlor is likely to be favored for Clement. The others in the field are Riposte, Selenite, Maximova, and Rosalind.
• The Fort Marcy, race 10, has a field of nine. Travers winner V. E. Day will make his 4-year-old debut and his first turf start since winning a first-level allowance last July. He went on from that race to win the Curlin and Travers. In his last start, he finished 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic for trainer Jimmy Jerkens.
V. E. Day worked seven furlongs over the Belmont training track in 1:25 on April 23. The track was listed as “good” that morning.
“He’s doing good; he's very strong,” Jerkens said. “He worked terrific the other day.”