Wet Your Whistle, Archidust serious contenders in Belmont Turf Sprint

ELMONT, N.Y. – Wet Your Whistle won the Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth Park in 2019. Archidust won the same race this year. Sunday, these two horses meet in the Grade 3, $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational, hoping to get serious about the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint in five weeks at Keeneland.

Wet Your Whistle, a 6-year-old gelding by Stroll, strung together four straight wins from December 2018 to June 2019 that included the Get Serious and the Grade 1 Highlander at Woodbine. His season went awry when he finished fourth over extremely hard turf in the Troy Stakes at Saratoga and then got hurt when finishing seventh in the Runhappy Turf Sprint Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

Wet Your Whistle was off 11 months before returning to the win the Karl Boyes Stakes, a six-furlong race over the synthetic surface at Presque Isle Downs in August. Sent off the 4-5 favorite in the Laurel Dash Stakes on Sept.7, Wet Your Whistle finished sixth behind winner Completed Pass.

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Trainer Michael Trombetta said he blames the soft turf that day for the poor performance of Wet Your Whistle, who was ridden by Trevor McCarthy.

“Trevor rode him that day and he had never been on him before, but he said he didn’t seem to appreciate it,” Trombetta said of the turf condition. “It hasn’t been a long time, but he seems to be bright and doing well. We had a few choices, but we decided to hang out and go to New York.”

Jose Ortiz rides Wet Your Whistle, the 126-pound highweight, from post 4.

Archidust, who won 5 races from 14 starts for trainer Jorge Navarro, has gone 2 for 2 for trainer Steve Asmussen, both 5 1/2-furlong stakes at Monmouth Park. In the Get Serious, Archidust was getting a ground-saving trip before he tipped wide in the stretch. He got floated out to the seven or eight path in the lane, but was still able to nip Spikes Shirl and Completed Pass at the wire. Completed Pass won the Laurel Dash and, on Thursday, got beaten narrowly in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint.

“He didn’t have a beautiful trip last time and still got up,” Asmussen said of Archidust. “The first time it went as smooth as you could hope for and he had success, but last time out he had some traffic and made some adjustments and still got up to win.”

Asmussen said that Irad Ortiz Jr. was scheduled to ride, but must sit out the card after having tested positive for COVID-19. Eric Cancel, who has won stakes for Asmussen each of the last two years, rides Archidust from post 5.

The last time Chewing Gum ran six furlongs at Belmont Park, he won a second-level allowance race here in July. Sayaaf, the runner-up from that race, has since come back to win. Backtohisroots, third in that allowance race, is coming off an allowance win on Aug. 28 at Saratoga.

Battle Station and Pulsate ran 1-2 in the Lucky Coin Stakes in Saratoga and are back in this field. Holiday Stone, who was an allowance winner at Kentucky Downs last out, Fog of War, and Big Wonder complete the field on turf. Chateau is entered to run on the main track.

The Belmont Turf Sprint runs as race 9 on a 10-race card that begins at 12:50 p.m.