Castletop Stable’s BALETTI (Gulch) found his best stride upon entering the
stretch and rallied to win Saturday’s $100,000
Fort
Marcy S. (G3) at Belmont Park, registering his first stakes victory with a
half-length decision. Trained by Angel Penna Jr. and ridden by Cornelio
Velasquez, the six-year-old gelding completed 1 1/16 miles over the firm Widener
turf in 1:40 1/5.
Off as the 5-2 favorite, the winner paid $7.40, $4.20 and $2.90. Pacesetter
Dynamoor (Dynaformer) held second at 4-1 and gave back $5.30 and $3.90. It was
two lengths back to the 7-1 Brother Nick (Malibu Moon), who returned $5.70.
Storm Play (Smart Strike), Sal the Barber (Alphabet Soup), Grand Couturier (GB)
(Grand Lodge), Operation Red Dawn (Miswaki) and Interpatation (Langfuhr) rounded
out the order of finish. The entrymates Ea (Dynaformer) and Florentino (Jpn)
(Swept Overboard) were scratched.
“It’s always nice when you win. This horse has constantly been improving,”
Penna said. “His race in New Orleans (eighth in the Mervin Muniz Jr. Memorial H.
[G2]) was a little
bit disappointing, but he was closer to the pace than he needed to be, and it’s
difficult to win that close to the pace at the Fair Grounds. We threw the race
out, and he came out of it great. I don’t know what’s next, other than we’ll
keep him between a mile and a sixteenth and a mile and an eighth.”
Balleti, whose scorecard now reads 21-6-2-6, $296,764, ran third in the King
Edward H. (Can-G2) at Woodbine last June.
Bred in Kentucky by G. Watts & Louise Humphrey, Baletti is out of the
Sadler’s Wells mare Cullberg Ballet (Ire), who is also the dam of a juvenile
colt named Astral Weeks (North Light [Ire]) and a weanling colt by E Dubai.
Cullberg Ballet is a half-sister to Irish highweight Careless Writing
(Ire) (Caerleon) and a full sibling to Group 3 winner Scribe and the
stakes-winning Northern Hal (Ire). This is the family of multiple Grade 1 winner
Annoconnor (Nureyev).