ELMONT, N.Y. - If Exaggerator has as smooth a trip in the Belmont Stakes on June 11 as he did Sunday shipping from Baltimore to New York, he’ll be even tougher to beat than most people think.
Exaggerator, the Preakness winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up, arrived at Belmont Park shortly after noon Sunday, following a smooth four-hour van ride from Pimlico.
Jockey Mike Smith and trainer Donnie Von Hemel both began their careers some 30-plus years ago in the Midwest at tracks like Ak-Sar-Ben, Canterbury Downs, Oaklawn Park, and Remington Park. Both well accomplished all these years later, they will team anew June 11 to try to take down the Belmont Stakes with Suddenbreakingnews, whom Von Hemel on Saturday said Smith would ride for the first time in the final leg of the Triple Crown.
Fort Erie Race Track will kick off its 119th season of live racing Tuesday with an eight-race card that attracted 72 entries. Post time for the opening-day card is 4:15 p.m. Eastern.
Fort Erie will run a 40-day meet. The track will run on Tuesdays only for the first two weeks of the meet before adding Sunday cards beginning June 12. The track will then race two days a week through closing day, Oct. 18.
CYPRESS, Calif. – California Chrome worked a half-mile in an easy 48.80 seconds at Los Alamitos early Saturday, a workout trainer Art Sherman caught in a quicker 47.80 seconds.
“I might have the selling watch,” Sherman joked.
No one is buying California Chrome, the winner of the $10 million Dubai World Cup on March 26 for owners Perry Martin and Taylor Made Farm.
The champion Tepin, who has been targeting the Royal Ascot meeting next month, got back on the work tab Saturday at Churchill Downs, covering five furlongs in 1:01.60.
With regular jockey Julien Leparoux aboard, Tepin worked solo shortly after the track opened and without Lasix or a nasal strip, neither of which she will be permitted to use overseas, which trainer Mark Casse has expressed concerns about, particularly in the case of the nasal strip. She turned in splits of 12.60 seconds and 36.60 and galloped out in 1:14.60.
Weekend Hideaway, a six-time stakes-winning sprinter, will attempt to stretch out to a mile in Monday’s $200,000 Commentator Stakes, one of six stakes on the 10-race Big Apple Showcase card for New York- breds at Belmont Park.
Weekend Hideaway returned from a four-month layoff to win the Affirmed Success Stakes going six furlongs on April 29.
“It’s stretching it a little bit,” trainer Phil Serpe said. “We freshened him up. He came back good. He seems to be moving forward, so for $200,000 we’ll take a shot.”
Trainer Chad Brown said he will get together with owner Will Farish to map out a summer plan for Gift Box, who made a smashing 3-year-old debut Thursday at Belmont Park, winning a first-level allowance race by 4 1/4 lengths.
Parked four wide throughout, Gift Box ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:41.42 and earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.
Gift Box hadn’t run since finishing third to Mohaymen in last November’s Grade 2 Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct.
Brown said Gift Box hadn’t wintered well in South Florida, but turned the corner when he returned to New York in late February.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher is putting together a formidable foursome for the Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap on the June 11 Belmont Stakes program.
On Friday, Pletcher sent three of the four out for workouts over the Belmont Park training track.
Anchor Down, impressive winner of the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes on May 7, worked a strong five furlongs in 1:00.06 in company with the 3-year-old Decorated Soldier. They went an opening quarter-mile in 24.12 seconds and got their final three furlongs in 35.94. The pair galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.46
Ivan Fallunovalot, the multiple stakes-winning Texas-bred who ran in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint, has shipped into Lone Star following some turn-out time in Arkansas, according to his trainer, Tom Howard. Ivan Fallunovalot arrived Tuesday.
Ivan Fallunovalot was stopped on after being diagnosed with a quarter crack in his left front hoof this spring at Oaklawn. He was turned out at the Arkansas farm of his owner, Lewis Matthews Jr. Howard said the foot improved with the time.
“It’s growing back real good,” he said.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. will be attacking two of the summer’s most significant offerings for older horses in the Texas and Louisiana region this week. He has Rocket Time on deck for the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on Monday, and Great Minds set for the $100,000 Evangeline Downs Mile next Saturday, June 4.
