Belmont Park Notes
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BELMONT PARK NOTES • Animal Kingdom, Shackleford connections square off at Belmont Stakes media luncheon • Brilliant Speed works half-mile for Belmont • Derby winner Animal Kingdom has quiet day following work • Preakness winner Shackleford looks strong in gallop • Master of Hounds arrives from Ireland; clears quarantine Thursday • Prime Cut to arrive Tuesday afternoon • Santiva also due at Belmont Park Tuesday • Ruler On Ice’s connections hoping for upset in Belmont • Monzon works in Maryland for Belmont • Nehro walks following Monday’s breeze • Ritvo hopes change in shoes will bring a change in fortune for Mucho Macho Man • Stay Thirsty a “throwback” for the Pletcher barn • Shivmangal looking for a home court advantage with Isn’t He Perfect, remains on the fence with Harlan’s Hello • Smiling Tiger to skip True North ELMONT, N.Y. – Team Valor International’s Barry Irwin, the outspoken owner of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, was the first to throw down the gauntlet in advance of Saturday’s showdown with Shackleford, saying he wasn’t worried at all about the rematch with the Preakness winner in the Belmont Stakes. “I’m not concerned at all about Shackleford,” said Irwin at Tuesday’s Belmont Stakes Media Luncheon at 620 Loft & Garden at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. “Mucho Macho Man is the horse I’m worried about.” Trainer Dale Romans, who saddled Shackleford to a half-length victory over the Derby winner at Pimlico, was quick to fire back. “That’s not the dumbest thing that Barry's ever said, but it’s close,” Romans said. Irwin also hinted at an unorthodox summer campaign for Animal Kingdom. “After the Belmont Stakes, the Breeders Cup Classic would be a long-term goal at the end of the year,” he said. “But I have my own idea of how to get there that wouldn't include the Haskell or the Travers.” To which Romans responded: “I’ll meet Animal Kingdom on any track, at any distance.” Saturday’s 1 ½ mile Belmont Stakes will mark the 22nd time the individual winners of the Derby and the Preakness have met in 143 editions of the “Test of the Champion.” Of the 21 prior rubber matches, Preakness winners have won 10 runnings, while Derby winners have emerged victorious in five. Most recently, Preakness winner Afleet Alex took the 2005 Belmont, in which Derby winner Giacomo finished seventh. The last Derby winner to triumph in a rubber match was Swale in 1984, when Preakness winner Gate Dancer was sixth. * * * Grade 1 Blue Grass winner Brilliant Speed wrapped up his serious preparations for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes with a solid half-mile work this morning under exercise rider and assistant trainer Dan Blacker. Coming on to the main track after the renovation break, the dark bay Dynaformer colt jogged the wrong way to the mile pole, stood quietly there for a few moments, then turned and headed down the backside. Blacker asked him to pick up the pace leaving the five-eighths pole, allowed him to establish his rhythm by the half-mile pole and was timed in 50.55 for four furlongs by NYRA clockers, who caught Brilliant Speed’s opening quarter in 25.60 and his gallop-out in 1:03.62. “It was a nice work,” said Tom Albertrani, who trains Brilliant Speed for Live Oak Plantation. “He did it on his own, too. I asked the rider to ease him off at the five-eighths pole and go a half. He gets over the track fine. I’m happy with the way he’s doing, that’s the main thing.” The work was Brilliant Speed’s third since his most recent start, a seventh-place finish behind Animal Kingdom in the Kentucky Derby. He returned to the Belmont worktab on May 23, going five furlongs in 1:00.11 and another five furlongs on June 1 in 1:03.11. “He looks like he’s put on a little weight since the Derby,” said Albertrani. “It was a good race. I liked the way he ran. He didn’t have a dream trip. He got a little pushed back early on, came wide, lost a lot of ground, and only got beat five lengths. He was running at the end, too.” The Derby marked the first start on conventional dirt since last summer for Brilliant Speed, who made his first two starts on dirt at Belmont and Saratoga Race Course and then ran five times on the turf prior to the Blue Grass. Third twice over a yielding course at Belmont in the fall, Brilliant Speed broke his maiden at Tampa Bay Downs on December 26, then finished second by a nose in the Dania Beach on January 16 and third by a neck in the Hallandale Beach (he was placed second by a disqualification) on February 6, both at Gulfstream Park. “I’m not going to go by his first two races, he was still green; to me, they were just throw-out races,” said the trainer. “Tim Wilkin from the Albany Times-Union said to me, ‘He was beaten 40 lengths in his first two dirt races’ and I said, ‘Well, he made up 35 of them in the Derby.’ If we can make up another five, we’re in good shape.” California-based Joel Rosario, first aboard Brilliant Speed for the Blue Grass, will ride on Saturday. “We were running out of options on who to ride him in the Blue Grass,” said Albertrani. “His agent called me, asking about riding King Congie in the Blue Grass, and I said I was pretty set there, but that my other horse is a nice horse, too. He said ‘That works for me.’ Joel came in rode him and did a nice job.” * * * While trainer Graham Motion traveled back to Maryland to attend the middle school graduation of his daughter, assistant David Rock oversaw a quiet day for Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom. The morning after working four furlongs in 47.76 seconds under jockey John Velazquez, Animal Kingdom did little more than jog a couple times around a pony track on the Belmont Park backstretch. “He looks great. He seemed fine today, 100 percent,” Rock said. The workout Monday, in company with a stablemate, was the best of 32 at the distance, but Motion said it was not designed to sharpen Animal Kingdom’s speed for the 1 1/2 – mile Belmont. “There was nothing clever about doing a sharp half,” Motion said. “The fact that he was pretty aggressive was because Johnny was on him and it was unusual surroundings. Only Robby Albarado has worked him at Churchill. They know when you put a jockey on them.” Rock said Animal Kingdom, runner-up to Shackleford in the Preakness, worked in company because “he’s immature and looks around a little bit, and he did that yesterday. He’s not there yet. He’s still a little green.” Rock said Animal Kingdom always has been a fast work horse, and that there are no tactical concerns about the Belmont, a race in which Shackleford figures to run a far less demanding opening quarter-mile than the sizzling 22.69 seconds he faced in the Preakness. “We’ll let him run his race,” Rock said. “He goes out and gallops and does his own thing.” Motion said he and Velazquez were somewhat taken by surprise by how Animal Kingdom broke in the Preakness, dropping 18 lengths off the pace after a half-mile. The son of Leroidesaimaux got away quickly from the gate in the Kentucky Derby and largely steered clear of traffic. “In the Preakness, we didn’t encourage him to break sharply because he did it the first time (in the Kentucky Derby),” Motion said. “It was only his second time on dirt. The dirt was that much more dramatic at Pimlico. He took most of it on his face. In the Derby, it was on his chest. It caught him by surprise.” Motion will return to New York and school Animal Kingdom in the starting gate Wednesday morning after the break at 8:45 a.m. The trainer then will attend the draw breakfast on the fourth floor of the clubhouse, which begins at 9:30 a.m. * * * Preakness winner Shackleford had a one-mile gallop over Belmont’s main track this morning under exercise rider Fasuntino Agilar with trainer Dale Romans and assistant Tammy Fox looking on from the apron in front of the grandstand. Afterward, Romans spoke about the pace scenario in the upcoming Belmont Stakes. “If Harlan’s Hello wants to go to the lead and he can, we’ll set off him and use him for a target,” said Romans. “If he’s not in the race, it looks like we’ll be on the lead. All we’re going to do, is get him in stride, and sit there. Don’t fight him. Either way, don’t be sending, and don’t be taking hold. Just get him relaxed. He can be relaxed and still going fast.” Last year, the Romans-trained First Dude set the pace in the 1 ½-mile Belmont before being overtaken by Drosselmeyer and Fly Down in the final sixteenth to finish third. “I think Shackleford’s got a little more turn of foot than First Dude had,” he said. “First Dude was a little more of a grinder. Even though he showed speed in going to the lead, he was more of a grinder. You had to make him do it a lot more than this horse. Shackleford is more responsive when the jockey asks him.” * * * Belmont Stakes contender Master of Hounds arrived in New York on Tuesday morning without incident and was put in quarantine at Aqueduct Racetrack.