Yo Daddy will have pace to run into back at one turn
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ELMONT, N.Y. – The reality about dirt racing being at Belmont Park is that virtually every race is run around one turn. So even though trainer Linda Rice views Yo Daddy as a better two-turn horse, she will rely on his previous success at one turn and the likelihood of a hot and heavy pace when she starts Yo Daddy in a conditioned allowance going 1 1/16 miles that serves as the feature on Sunday’s nine-race card.
Yo Daddy’s two wins this year came at 1 1/8 miles in an allowance and 1 1/4 miles in the Excelsior. After finding graded races like the Pimlico Special and Suburban a bit too tough, Yo Daddy finished a good second to San Siro in a 1 1/8-mile allowance Aug. 8 at Saratoga. San Siro came back to win the Greenwood Cup at Parx Racing last month.
“I thought it was a very good race, I thought he was a little close to fast fractions and maybe he got a little late,” Rice said of Yo Daddy’s Aug. 8 performance. “He’s usually coming late, but it was a good race.”
Yo Daddy doesn’t figure to be laying too close to the pace on Sunday with Georgia Magic and Tip Top Thomas in the field.
Georgia Magic, trained and owned in part by Steve Schauer, has reeled off three consecutive allowance wins, all since being put on the front end. While neither Schauer nor co-owner Evan Gewirtz (Island Wind Racing) were happy to see Tip Top Thomas in the field, they indicated they are not changing Georgia Magic’s style.
“I think whatever they throw at him on the front end he’ll be there,” Schauer said. “There’s no secret to what his success is, so we’re going to fire and go, and if Tip Top Thomas goes, he goes, nothing you can do.”
Tip Top Thomas, trained by Todd Pletcher, finished second in a race under similar conditions going 6 1/2 furlongs July 26 at Saratoga. He then set the pace before fading to fifth in the Grade 1 Forego at seven furlongs.
Tip Top Thomas has proven effective at this 1 1/16-mile distance, albeit around two turns, winning the Grade 3 Indiana Derby and listed Smarty Jones last year. Tip Top Thomas tracked the pace when he ran second in the Grade 1 Champagne, a one-turn mile race, two years ago.
Pentathlon is stretching out in distance seeking to regain the form he showed winning an allowance race at Tampa and a listed stakes at Gulfstream earlier in the year. Trainer Shug McGaughey also is making a rider switch to Paco Lopez, hoping the horse doesn’t drop back like he did last time under Samuel Marin.
“Paco will let him run away from there,” said McGaughey, who added that Pentathlon is a horse who “trains good, runs bad. Maybe we can figure something out.”
Later on the card, Captain Cook, unraced since a fourth-place finish behind Skippylongstocking in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 24, returns in a second-level allowance/optional $80,000 claiming race at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Captain Cook, a son of Practical Joke, has won races from seven furlongs to 1 1/8 miles. In December of his 2-year-old season, he won a seven-furlong maiden race by 9 1/4 lengths before winning the Withers at 1 1/8 miles in February 2025.
Captain Cook is trained by Pletcher, who also entered Gate to Wire in this field. Gate to Wire won the Swale at Gulfstream in 2025 but is winless in six starts since.
Mike Miceli brings Breslau back to the races for his first start since a last-place finish in the Grade 2 Tom Fool on Feb 28 at Aqueduct. Seventeen days prior to that, he was a sharp winner of a starter allowance going six furlongs. Breslau, a 7-year-old gelding, is in for the $80,000 claiming tag.
Norm Casse has the pair of the speedy Mischievous M and the off-the-pace runner Classic Time in this spot.
Two Eagles River, beaten a head in a spot similar to this Sept. 7, is another contender in here.
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