ELMONT, N.Y. – The New York Racing Association in 2018 will again offer a $1 million bonus to any Japanese-based horse who wins the Belmont Stakes.
The NYRA offered a $1 million bonus this year and attracted Epicharis to enter the race. Epicharis, as of Friday, was still expected to start in Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont despite a foot issue that has prevented him from training the last two days.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Stanford, the Todd Pletcher-trained standout with multiple graded stakes wins, is among the older horses expected to challenge the heavily favored Gun Runner next Saturday night in the Grade 1, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap.
Pletcher confirmed Friday that he intends to send Stanford here from his New York base for the 1 1/8-mile Foster, one of five graded stakes on a Downs After Dark program.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Liam Benson, who made a splash as a trainer two summers ago by winning a stakes race at age 20, has given up his small stable to work as an assistant for trainer Mike Maker.
Benson said his horses are being sent to New Jersey to trainer Derek Ryan, for whom Benson once worked. “I hope to be given the opportunity to train again in the future, but I am planning on taking the next several years to learn from the best,” Benson said via Twitter.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher’s 3-year-old arsenal now includes the ultra-impressive Coal Front, who backed up his strong maiden win at Keeneland in April with a solid 2 3/4-length victory in a first-level allowance Thursday at Belmont.
Difficult to load, Coal Front came out running under John Velazquez, attending a swift early pace, making the lead three furlongs out, and then opening up in the stretch. He covered 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:16.15 and was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.
ELMONT, N.Y. – In a span of five days, the winners of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and Juvenile Fillies Turf won stakes at Belmont Park, and now they are set to contest the two biggest prizes at this track for 3-year-olds on the grass.
On Thursday, New Money Honey scored a front-running two-length victory in the Grade 3 Wonder Again Stakes. Her Chad Brown-trained stablemate Fifty Five finished second. In a race without pace, New Money Honey was sent to the lead by jockey Javier Castellano and never looked back.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Classic Empire was improving Friday morning after the abscess on his right front foot that forced him to miss Saturday’s 149th Belmont Stakes busted open Thursday night, and his connections are hopeful that last year’s 2-year-old male champion could resume training by the middle or end of next week.
With the abscess popping, fluid drains out of the foot, alleviating pain, and it allows him to be treated with anti-inflammatories, according to trainer Mark Casse.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Epicharis, who is being treated for an issue with his right front hoof that required him being outfitted in a glue-on shoe, on Friday remained a candidate for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, even though he did not go to the track at Belmont Park for the second straight morning.
Eighteen months ago, officials at the New York Racing Association, the operator of Belmont Park and two other state racetracks, put in motion a plan to lure more horses from Japan to New York.
On Saturday, that relatively ambitious and somewhat costly plan, aided by some fortunate timing, may pay off if the Japanese horse Epicharis – who was treated for a mild case of lameness on Wednesday night – runs in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the Triple Crown.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith has had a year to remember, and it’s only June.
He has won the world’s two richest races with Arrogate. He won the Kentucky Oaks with Abel Tasman. And his mounts in North America have already won more than $11 million in 2017.
