Barbara D. Livingston
Risen Star winner Modernist, outside with Junior Alvarado up, worked five furlongs Sunday in 59.28 seconds, in company with Tacitus.
ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott had been thinking more about the $500,000 Ohio Derby on June 27 than next Saturday’s $1 million Belmont Stakes for Modernist before he watched him work on Sunday morning at Belmont Park.
Modernist, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes in February, worked five furlongs in 59.28 seconds over the Belmont main track, going in company with Tacitus, the 2019 Belmont Stakes runner-up. The pair hooked up with Sonneman, a 3-year-old trained by Steve Asmussen, who ultimately took back off the duo. Sonneman is pointing to the Easy Goer Stakes on June 25.