Upstart adds blinkers and smokes half-mile

ELMONT, N.Y. – Upstart, who finished fifth to Effinex in the Oaklawn Handicap after winning the Grade 3 Razorback, is pointing to the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 11 at Belmont Park.

Last Saturday, while the racing world was focusing on the Preakness, Upstart blitzed four furlongs in 46.06 seconds over the Belmont Park main track. He wore blinkers for the work and will race in blinkers for the first time in the Met Mile.

“The track was very fast anyway, but he made it look even faster,” trainer Rick Violette said.

Violette said he wanted to put blinkers on Upstart to enable his rider to position the horse where he wanted early in the race. Violette felt Upstart was not in the proper position early in the Oaklawn Handicap.

“The question is how much I want to close them up,” Violette said. “You don’t want him to be a run-off. You just want to get position. But I am dying to run him.”

Violette said Samraat will run in the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational on the Belmont undercard. Samraat finished sixth, beaten four lengths by Tonalist, in the 2014 Belmont Stakes. He has run only three times since, most recently finishing second in the Grade 3 Westchester.

“That looks like the direction we’re going in,” Violette said. “He ran really well in the Belmont despite an awful trip. He’s got a high cruising speed and wants to run all day.”