NEWS
Travers may feature Belmont's top three
Posted: Sunday, June 06, 2010 4:29 PM
DROSSELMEYER WINNING BELMONT
PhotosbyZ.com/THOROUGHBRED TIMES
by Steve Bailey
With his first career classic victory tucked firmly in his back pocket, Racing Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott on Sunday set about trying to plot a future course for Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Drosselmeyer now that the 2010 Triple Crown has ended.
Mott, 57, celebrated the victory at dinner with family and friends on Saturday night but was back at his barn early Sunday morning to check on WinStar Farm’s second classic winner of the season, Drosselmeyer, who beat Fly Down by three-quarters of a length in the 1½-mile race.
With three different horses each winning a single leg of the Triple Crown—WinStar’s Super Saver took the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) and 2009 champion two-year-old male Lookin At Lucky won the Preakness Stakes (G1)—Mott knows the second half of the season will determine the divisional championship.
“As Elliott [Walden, vice president of WinStar] said yesterday, the Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont winner have to sort themselves out and see who’s best by the end of the year,” Mott said on Sunday. “We’d like to think, come Saratoga time, at the end of the meet, they run the Travers [Stakes (G1) on August 28 at Saratoga Race Course], and that maybe he’d have an opportunity to run in there. That’s what I’m hoping.”
Another Racing Hall of Fame trainer, Nick Zito, spent Sunday morning trying to make sense of the 2010 classic season. The native New Yorker said he believed he was the first trainer to hit the board in all three Triple Crown races with three different horses—Ice Box was second in the Kentucky Derby, Jackson Bend finished third in the Preakness, and Fly Down finished second in the Belmont.
Although both of his Belmont horses came out of the race in good order, Zito said he believed there were reasons Ice Box never fired and finished a disappointing eighth of 12 in the Belmont.
“Ice Box, we scoped him after the race and he was clean. He had no blood and no mucus,” Zito said. “However, he did displace; he flipped his palate.
“He’s an excitable horse—he’s a Pulpit, he’s out of a Tabasco Cat mare. It was very, very hot down here, we didn’t catch a break that way. The last two days he was ready to explode. He was ready to do something, and he probably left his race somewhere else other than the track.
“Fly Down, he ran a great race. Obviously, a lot of people give Mike Smith [riding Drosselmeyer] credit—and rightfully so—because he kept him in. [Fly Down] couldn’t get clear until the very end, and you saw what he did in the lane. It was remarkable how he got second. As soon as he got clear, he beat First Dude. Terrific horse.”
Zito said he hopes to send Fly Down to the Travers, a race he said he would also consider for Jackson Bend.
“I’d like to go straight to the Haskell [Invitational Stakes (G1) on August 1 at Monmouth Park] with Ice Box because if he gets any kind of pace, he’s a much better horse. We’ll see what [owner Robert] LaPenta wants to do, but he’s still one of the better three-year-olds around.
“He had a legitimate excuse yesterday. I think the ultimate goal is to probably get them all in the Breeders’ Cup, then work our way backwards from there. You gotta be content; you gotta be thankful to have horses running in these races and we did. We had three different horses that ran unbelievable.”
Trainer Dale Romans said third-place finisher First Dude bounced back from Saturday’s race none the worse for wear.
“He’s fine,” Romans said. “It doesn’t seem like the race took too much out of him, but we’ll see when we get back [to Kentucky]. I think he ran hard and tried the whole way.”
Romans said the Travers also is on the agenda for First Dude, the Preakness runner-up who is named for Todd Palin, the husband of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Romans said he was surprised but happy to meet the Palins, who attended the race on Saturday.
“I didn’t know they were coming, so that was interesting,” he said. “It was nice being able to meet them.”
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Bill, Evansville,, IN on June 07, 2010 at 08:56 AM
All Triple Crown races have been real barnburners. The excitement now is on the late developers and arrivals. However, the Derby and Preakness winners are taking it easy and should be at their peaks on Traverse's day.
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Posted by: D, Margate, FL on June 07, 2010 at 08:32 AM
thinking of the Travers and the triple crown runners........... how about adding Zenyatta to that mix??????????? what a race ! ! ! !
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Posted by: anita, marion, NY on June 06, 2010 at 04:57 PM
Awesome the first three finishers from the Belmont meeting again in the Travers. Lets include Super Saver (first 3 in Derby) as well as Looking at Lucky(first 3 in Preakness-too). And a few more horses too.
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