Turf runners get their chance on Sunday's card

The forecast for Belmont Park on Sunday calls for dry conditions – thank goodness.

It’s a veritable turf festival on Sunday at Belmont, where six of the nine races are carded for turf, including the entire late pick four, races 6 through 9.

Race 6, a maiden special weight at one mile, will have Brooklyn Bobby as the favorite – again. Brooklyn Bobby had a reputation even before he raced and was the 7-5 favorite at Saratoga last summer when he finished sixth debuting in a two-turn turf race.

That was it for Brooklyn Bobby’s 2-year-old campaign, and at 3, he has finished second in all three of his starts, but his most recent runner-up finish at Keeneland came behind Arklow, who returned to win the Grade 2 American Turf on the Kentucky Derby undercard. Sunday just might be graduation day for Brooklyn Bobby.

Race 7 is carded at six furlongs for New York-bred second-level allowance horses or $40,000 claimers and should come down to Barrier to Entry, who was second by a nose at this level when last seen in November, and Epping Forest, who easily cleared her first New York-bred allowance condition in her last start.

In race 8, a first-level, one-mile allowance, Three Perfections figures to be widely singled in multirace plays. Trained by Jimmy Jerkens, Three Perfections debuted last summer at Saratoga without blinkers and Lasix; with them, he ran four very nice grass races late last year, and he has put together a solid work pattern for his 2017 debut.

The nightcap is for $40,000 maiden claimers at six furlongs. Good luck with it.

Send It In works for Brooklyn

Send It In, whose half-length win over Tu Brutus in the April 8 Excelsior produced a massive 119 Beyer Speed Figure, worked a half-mile in 49.90 seconds on Thursday at Belmont. It was Send It In’s first work since April 28, and trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed via text message that Send It In remains on course to start June 10 in the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational.

The Brooklyn should be a rematch between Send It In and Tu Brutus, who ran back May 7 in the Flat Out Stakes and won by 11 lengths, earning a 109 Beyer.

◗ Chad Brown already has a vast trove of stakes-class grass horses, particularly females, and another one with stakes potential is on her way to his stable from France.

Brown confirmed by text message on Friday that Sol Kumin has purchased the France-based 3-year-old filly Uni. Uni in her most recent start won a listed stakes over 1 1/8 miles at Maisons-Laffitte, and she has an overall record of 2-2-1 from six starts. Uni, by More than Ready, was trained in France by Fabrice Chappet.

◗ Cadeyrn got a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure in winning Thursday’s featured eighth race, a third-level allowance. Cadeyrn, trained by Jeremiah Englehart, ran six furlongs on a slow-playing main track in 1:10.12, beating Candid Desire by 1 3/4 lengths. Odds-on favorite Threefiveindia was in perfect striking position at the top of the stretch but came home a one-paced third.