Ya Gotta Have Soul, Arson Squad both have something to prove

ELMONT, N.Y. – In Sunday’s $70,000 Mighty Forum Stakes at Belmont Park, Ya Gotta Have Soul will attempt to prove his last race was not a fluke while Arson Squad will try to show that his last two were.

Ya Gotta Have Soul, a $775,000 yearling purchase, finally lived up to his price tag with a sharp-looking 4 1/2-length first-level allowance race going seven furlongs here on Oct. 2 for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 96. The Mighty Forum is run at a mile.

“He exceeded my expectations last time,” said trainer Barclay Tagg. “I was delighted. Maybe he has turned the corner.”

Tagg is hoping that Ya Gotta Have Soul is like many other progeny of the stallion Perfect Soul, meaning they get better as they get older. A victory by Ya Gotta Have Soul Sunday could earn him a spot in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Nov. 27, a race won by his older brother Tale of Ekati, also trained by Tagg and owned by Charles Fipke.

Arson Squad is one of three horses entered by Richard Dutrow Jr. All three will run as separate betting interests.

Arson Squad won the Skip Away at Gulfstream and the Alysheba at Churchill – both Grade 3 events – in the spring and looked to be developing into a potential force in the handicap division. But the 7-year-old gelded son of Brahms finished sixth in the Stephen Foster and fifth in the Majestic Light at Monmouth Park in his two most recent starts.

“I don’t know what happened to him in his last two starts,” Dutrow said. “He went into them good, he came out of them good.”

Arson Squad, the co-highweight of 124 pounds along with Gone Astray, will break from post 7 under Ramon Dominguez.

Dutrow also entered Ea and Golden Spiked. Ea will be making his first start for Dutrow, who claimed the horse for $50,000 on behalf of Vincent Scuderi in a one-mile race on Sept. 24. The 6-year-old gelding is 2 for 4 at Belmont and figures to be coming late from off the pace.

Golden Spikes has been off form since winning the Grade 2 Carry Back in the summer of 2008 and would need a major form reversal to be competitive here.

Discreet Treasure has never finished worse than second in five starts at Belmont Park, including a runner-up finish to Wishful Tomcat in an allowance race here on Sept. 29. He will get blinkers back on for this spot.
Our Edge will be the main speed under Fernando Jara.