After a five-hour van ride up I-95 from Baltimore that wasn’t nearly as dramatic as his thrill-packed run in the Preakness, Afleet Alex arrived at Belmont Park yesterday and bedded down in barn 14, his home-away-from-home as he prepares for Saturday’s 137th Belmont Stakes.
Coming off a 43/4-length triumph in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown – made all the more memorable after he ran up the heels of Scrappy T turning for home, stumbled to his nose and came within inches of going down in disaster – Afleet Alex will be heavily favored in the mile-and-a-half “Test of the Champion.”
Once again, he’ll face Giacomo, 50-1 upset winner of the Kentucky Derby and a well-beaten third in the Preakness, in what’s shaping up as a field of 10 or 11 three-year-olds.
Scrappy T, however, will not be around to cause more trouble. Trainer Robbie Bailes announced yesterday that the Preakness runner-up will skip the Belmont, probably to await the June 25 Turf Cup at Colonial Downs.
“It’s mainly the mile and a half, and the fact he’d be coming back in three weeks,” Bailes said. “He’s a gelding and we’re in it for the long haul.”
The Belmont did gain another starter when trainer Nick Zito, after saddling five horses in the Derby and three in the Preakness, decided to run another trio in the final leg of the Crown, adding Indy Storm to the pair of Andromeda’s Hero and Pinpoint, who already were definite for the race.
Andromeda’s Hero, eighth in the Derby and Indy Storm, winner of an allowance race on the Preakness undercard, worked in company yesterday morning over the Oklahoma training track, going seven furlongs in 1:30.
“With strangles, with herpes and Iraq, what’s the big deal if I run three horses in this race?” said Zito, who upset Smarty Jones in last year’s Belmont with Birdstone, who also ran eighth in the Derby. “It’s the last race in the Triple Crown, and a lot of my horses have [distance] pedigrees.”
In fact, Andromeda’s Hero, by Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, traces his female line back to a full sister of Man o’ War; Indy Storm, by 1992 Belmont winner A.P. Indy, is from the family of Damascus; while Pinpoint, by Peaks and Valleys, descends from the great racemare Frizette.
All three Zito runners will ship down from the Old Spa on Wednesday, when Giacomo – currently training at Hollywood Park – is expected to arrive on a flight from California.
Sal Russo, trainer of Peter Pan runner-up Reverberate, said he’s leaning toward running him back in the Belmont and will decide early this week. Trainer Pat Reynolds will decide whether Watchmon, whose only victory came in an April maiden race at Gulfstream Park, will start after the colt works tomorrow.
