Pletcher's Bluegrass Cat, Sunriver pegged as Belmont Stakes favorites
Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Bluegrass Cat and Peter Pan Stakes (G2) winner Sunriver, excluded from the Derby due to insufficient graded stakes earnings, give trainer Todd Pletcher a formidable one-two punch as the respective morning-line favorite and second choice for the 138th running of the Belmont Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Belmont Park.
Bluegrass Cat was listed by New York Racing Association oddsmaker Eric Donovan as the 3-to-1 favorite against 11 other three-year-old males entered on Wednesday for the final leg of the Triple Crown. Sunriver is next at 4-to-1 with Derby third-place Steppenwolfer at 9-to-2 and Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) winner Bob and John at 5-to-1.
The 1 1/2-mile Belmont will be run as the 11th of 13 races on Saturday with post time at 6:33 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live during a two-hour broadcast on ABC that starts at 5 p.m.
Bluegrass Cat has not started since finishing 6 1/2 lengths behind Barbaro in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 and that plan by Pletcher to skip the Preakness Stakes (G1) was specifically designed to get the Storm Cat colt to the Belmont Stakes fresh and ready off five weeks rest.
"We purposely gave him a few days off after the Derby and he's bounced back really well," Pletcher said. "He hasn't missed a day since and is doing well [heading into the Belmont]."
Bluegrass Cat is undefeated in two starts at Belmont, including a win in the Nashua Stakes (G3) on October 28. He later added the Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct to his two-year-old resume.
Bluegrass Cat is one of five entrants seeking to win the Belmont after running in the Kentucky Derby and skipping the Preakness, along with Steppenwolfer, Bob and John, Deputy Glitters, and Jazil. The last Belmont winner to run in the Derby but skip the Preakness was Birdstone in 2004; Empire Maker the year before and Commendable in '00 also accomplished the feat.
Sunriver comes into the Belmont after a hard-fought neck victory over Lewis Michael in the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan on May 20 at Belmont. The last Peter Pan winner to capture the Belmont Stakes was A.P. Indy in 1992, although Lemon Drop Kid finished third in the '99 Peter Pan before his Belmont victory.
A full brother to two-time champion Ashado, Sunriver was third and 3 1/2 lengths behind Barbaro in the Florida Derby (G1) but was left out of the Kentucky Derby field. Being excluded from the Derby might not have been such a bad thing in the long run, Pletcher said.
"The long-term interest of the horse probably set us up better for the Belmont, but we still would have liked to take a chance in the Derby," Pletcher said. "But it was out of our control, so we went to plan B. The plan then was to run in the Peter Pan and he ran really well in the Peter Pan."
Steppenwolfer has trained impressively at Belmont for trainer Dan Peitz since his third-place effort in the Derby. The Aptitude colt turned in two sharp six-furlong workouts in 1:13.02 on the main track on May 27 and in 1:10.20 on the training track on June 2.
"[The 1:10.20 workout] indicates how well he's doing right now," Peitz said. "I hope he transfers that work to Saturday. He did it in hand and had a great gallop out afterwards. It wasn't like we were asking him to go that fast. If we had asked him for it, then I would have been concerned but he did it on his own."
Peitz said he expected Steppenwolfer, who was far back in the early stages of both the Arkansas Derby (G2) and Kentucky Derby before rallying, to be closer to the pace in the Belmont.
Source: www.thoroughbredtimes.com
Bluegrass Cat was listed by New York Racing Association oddsmaker Eric Donovan as the 3-to-1 favorite against 11 other three-year-old males entered on Wednesday for the final leg of the Triple Crown. Sunriver is next at 4-to-1 with Derby third-place Steppenwolfer at 9-to-2 and Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) winner Bob and John at 5-to-1.
The 1 1/2-mile Belmont will be run as the 11th of 13 races on Saturday with post time at 6:33 p.m. EDT. The race will be televised live during a two-hour broadcast on ABC that starts at 5 p.m.
Bluegrass Cat has not started since finishing 6 1/2 lengths behind Barbaro in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 and that plan by Pletcher to skip the Preakness Stakes (G1) was specifically designed to get the Storm Cat colt to the Belmont Stakes fresh and ready off five weeks rest.
"We purposely gave him a few days off after the Derby and he's bounced back really well," Pletcher said. "He hasn't missed a day since and is doing well [heading into the Belmont]."
Bluegrass Cat is undefeated in two starts at Belmont, including a win in the Nashua Stakes (G3) on October 28. He later added the Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct to his two-year-old resume.
Bluegrass Cat is one of five entrants seeking to win the Belmont after running in the Kentucky Derby and skipping the Preakness, along with Steppenwolfer, Bob and John, Deputy Glitters, and Jazil. The last Belmont winner to run in the Derby but skip the Preakness was Birdstone in 2004; Empire Maker the year before and Commendable in '00 also accomplished the feat.
Sunriver comes into the Belmont after a hard-fought neck victory over Lewis Michael in the 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan on May 20 at Belmont. The last Peter Pan winner to capture the Belmont Stakes was A.P. Indy in 1992, although Lemon Drop Kid finished third in the '99 Peter Pan before his Belmont victory.
A full brother to two-time champion Ashado, Sunriver was third and 3 1/2 lengths behind Barbaro in the Florida Derby (G1) but was left out of the Kentucky Derby field. Being excluded from the Derby might not have been such a bad thing in the long run, Pletcher said.
"The long-term interest of the horse probably set us up better for the Belmont, but we still would have liked to take a chance in the Derby," Pletcher said. "But it was out of our control, so we went to plan B. The plan then was to run in the Peter Pan and he ran really well in the Peter Pan."
Steppenwolfer has trained impressively at Belmont for trainer Dan Peitz since his third-place effort in the Derby. The Aptitude colt turned in two sharp six-furlong workouts in 1:13.02 on the main track on May 27 and in 1:10.20 on the training track on June 2.
"[The 1:10.20 workout] indicates how well he's doing right now," Peitz said. "I hope he transfers that work to Saturday. He did it in hand and had a great gallop out afterwards. It wasn't like we were asking him to go that fast. If we had asked him for it, then I would have been concerned but he did it on his own."
Peitz said he expected Steppenwolfer, who was far back in the early stages of both the Arkansas Derby (G2) and Kentucky Derby before rallying, to be closer to the pace in the Belmont.
Source: www.thoroughbredtimes.com
posted by Jacobo | 1:32 PM
1 Comments:
I got hold of http://startso11.info/www.moda.gazeta.pl.html one of them, said the sputtering Buller, but it was fast to something and I couldn't get it loose.. Poopoo was evidently in trouble, having thoughts which often lie too http://startso11.info/hotel+Virgina+Sun%2C+Faliraki.html deep for tears; and, as his grief was also too big for words, he untied his horse, jumped into his gig, and returned to the auctioneer in hot haste.. It seemed http://storyah44.info/policealne+studium+elektryczne.html that Congressman Fulghum had seen the publisher who had the Major's manuscript for reading.. We have seen that at the same http://rebestal.info/chuligani.html time that she dreams of the denial of the wish, the patient is in reality occupied in securing an unfulfilled wish (the caviare sandwiches).. What will he do? Do? said Podington; http://startso11.info/wimbledon.html he'll do what he is doing now; he doesn't mind trains.. But he had not forgotten his compact with his friend, and http://startso11.info/www.elbalg.pl.html in the course of a week he wrote to Podington, inviting him to spend some days with him.. is a person with whom http://startso11.info/ati+polska.html I am scarcely on visiting terms, nor to my knowledge have I ever desired any more cordial relationship.. Moodily the elder pursued his journey, and as he rode, far http://startso11.info/produkty+ekologiczne.html off in the night there rose and quivered a plaintive cry.. My friends seemed to think it was I; but I felt, that, as Dennis had done the popular thing, he was entitled to the honor; so I sent him to Augusta when the time came, and http://wowyesaf.info/rezy+w+Choszcznie.html he took the oaths.. Sometimes the wheels http://startso11.info/lornetki+6+x30.html struck a large stone, terrifying Mr.. Und you pelief, ten, he inquired, at te http://startso11.info/esnik+augustow.html last? You pelief, ten, in te possibility of te odd? I again nodded my head in assent.. But the Colonel was brought up in a school of http://startso11.info/emoty+niecenzuralne.html Southern politeness, already antique in the republic, and his bow of courtesy belonged to the epoch of his shirt frill and strapped trousers.. I am by no means naturally nervous, and the very few glasses http://startso11.info/www.jerzydudek.com.html of Lafitte which I had sipped served to embolden me a little, so that I felt nothing of trepidation, but merely uplifted my eyes with a leisurely movement and looked carefully around the room for the intruder.. After the surrender, you took the name of--don't prompt me--Mitchell, and went to http://startso11.info/youngerbabes.com.html the West--to Nebraska.. We are compelled to disregard the http://rebestal.info/rzeszow.html objection urged against this conclusion that our consciousness is never directed to a knowledge of the former, and that it is directed to a knowledge of the latter only on special occasions when the censor is unexpectedly surprised.. We may assume a primitive condition of the psychic apparatus in which http://startso11.info/relax+take+it+easy.html this road is really followed, i.. She had informed him, however, that at present http://startso11.info/nisan+tida.html he was accustomed to drive a big black horse which, in her opinion, was as gentle and reliable as these animals ever became, and she could not imagine how anybody could be afraid of him.. But Elder Brown's sin during the remainder of the day contained an element http://startso11.info/Mariusz+Saniternik.html of responsibility.. Babe brought a lamp and set it inside the window, and http://startso11.info/www.emperia+holding.pl.html Mr.. With one supreme effort he collected himself into a motionless http://startso11.info/wirniki.html mass of matter, bracing his front legs wide apart; that is to say, he stopped short...
Post a Comment
<< Home