Trainer Todd Pletcher said Saturday morning that Coolmore’s DUNKIRK
(Unbridled’s Song), 11th in the Kentucky Derby (G1), is under consideration for
the 141st running of the $1 million Belmont S. (G1) on June 6.
“He is possible,” Pletcher said from his barn at Belmont Park. “We’ll make a
determination after he breezes, which will probably be sometime next weekend.”
Unraced at two, the gray colt won his first two starts at Gulfstream Park
this year in impressive fashion, then finished second to Quality Road (Elusive
Quality) in the Florida Derby (G1) on March 28 prior to his Derby run. After
stumbling at the start in the Derby, Dunkirk was checked hard and jostled in
traffic approaching the first turn.
Pletcher also said that multiple Grade 1-placed MUNNINGS (Speightstown), who
returned to the races this year with a good runner-up finish in a tough seven-furlong
allowance on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs, was being
pointed toward the $250,000 Woody Stephens (G2) on the Belmont undercard.
The conditioner will run Sham S. (G3) runner-up TAKE THE POINTS (Even the
Score) in next Saturday’s Preakness S. (G1), and Pletcher said he was intrigued
by the possibility of Kentucky Oaks star RACHEL ALEXANDRA (Medaglia d’Oro)
taking on colts in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“That filly has been most impressive,” said Pletcher, who is the most recent
trainer to saddle a filly to victory in a Triple Crown race, having won the 2007
Belmont with Rags to Riches. “It takes a special kind of filly to win one of the
classics, and she looks like she is special.”