Belmont Park Backstretch Notes | |
| NYRA Press Staff | June 2, 2007 |
Slew’s Tizzy had his final major pre-Belmont Stakes workout this morning at The Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington Kentucky. The colt breezed a half mile over the facility’s conventional dirt track for trainer Gregory Fox. “I got him in :49 flat,” Fox said. “I worked him from the mile pole to the half mile pole at the end of a two mile gallop. It was very impressive.” Slew’s Tizzy is one of six confirmed starters for Saturday’s 139th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes for three-year-olds at one mile and a half. The Belmont Stakes is the oldest, longest and final leg of the Triple Crown. It is scheduled as race 11 on a 13-race program that begins at noon. Post time for the Belmont Stakes, which will be televised on ABC from 5-7 p.m., is 6:25 pm. Slew’s Tizzy has racked up back-to-back stakes victories since April 21st, taking the Grade 2 Lexington at Keeneland and Grade 3 Lone Star Derby. And as far as the colt’s training has gone, Fox says he hasn’t changed the regimen heading into the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. “We’ve pretty much done the same thing with him,” he said. “His work today, that’s what we did before Texas.” Slew’s Tizzy, with jockey John Velazquez to ride, will van to Louisville early Tuesday morning before he boards a New York-bound flight that afternoon. “He’s ready,” Fox said. “The track he trains on is very deep and I think it’s a great surface for getting a horse fit.” Slew’s Tizzy’s sire, Tiznow, won his second Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park in 2001. Hard Spun, the Kentucky Derby runner-up and third-place Preakness finisher, had an uneventful van ride from Delaware Park and arrived safely at Belmont Park at around 2:40 this afternoon. “He galloped about a mile and a half this morning down here,” said trainer Larry Jones, who was to arrive later this evening. “I plan to breeze him on Monday, but I’m looking at the weather forecast and it looks a little unsettled. I’ll make up my mind tomorrow morning.” The Belmont Stakes picked up another likely starter on Friday when owner Larry Roman announced he intends on running his gelding, Digger, in the third leg of the Triple Crown. By Yonaguska, Digger will be making his debut for trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. in the Belmont Stakes. A rider has yet to be determined. Digger had been entered and was scratched from today’s fifth race at Monmouth Park, the one-mile Spend a Buck Stakes. “He’s supposed to work on Monday,” said Dutrow, who is based at Aqueduct. “The horse is doing good and it’s not like he’s got any problems. (Roman) has been excited about it for a while now. I guess Street Sense coming out of the Belmont really got his blood pumped up.” Digger last raced at Charles Town in April. He finished second at odds of 1-2 in an allowance race. Dutrow did add that his multiple Grade 1 winning Silver Wagon, sixth in Monday’s Metropolitan Handicap, exited the race no worse for the wear. “He came out good. He’s already been to the track a couple of times,” Dutrow said. “I’m still wondering why he didn’t run his race. I don’t know what we’re gonna do with him.” Lewis Pell and Michael Eigner’s Imawildandcrazyguy galloped a mile and three-quarters this morning and will make his third consecutive start in a Grade 1 when he runs in the $1 million Belmont Stakes next Saturday. The Wild Event gelding will have his final pre-Belmont work Sunday morning, according to trainer Bill Kaplan. “He’ll probably go out at 5:30,” Kaplan said. “He’ll start off in a big, long gallop and then go into a three-eighths breeze.” Imawildandcrazyguy has not run since finishing a good fourth in the Kentucky Derby. Preakness winner Curlin, owned by the partnership of Midnight Cry Stable, Stonestreet Stable, Padua Stables and George Bolton, galloped a mile and a half this morning at Churchill Downs and remains on target for the 139th Belmont Stakes June 9th. “Everything has gone perfectly since the Preakness,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “He’ll work Monday morning and ship to New York on Tuesday.” Curlin figures to be a strong favorite in the Belmont Stakes off his Triple Crown experience, which includes a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Invasor, the defending Horse of the Year, stretched his legs at Belmont Park this morning with a half mile breeze over the main track that was timed in :48.91. Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, Invasor is on target for a title defense of Belmont’s 121st running of the Grade 1, $400,000 Suburban Handicap at 10 furlongs on June 30th. |









