The race to become champion steeplechaser of 2012 is about to reach its final
fences as Belmont Park hosts the Grade 1, $150,000
Lonesome Glory on Thursday.
The 2 1/2-mile test is the first in a trio of top-level hurdles over the next
two months which often determines the division’s Eclipse Award recipient. The
Lonesome Glory serves as a prelude to the Grade 1 Grand National at Far Hills,
New Jersey, on October 20, and the Grade 1 Colonial Cup at Camden, South
Carolina, on November 17.
The top three finishers from last month’s Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup
at Saratoga — Demonstrative, Charminster and Spy in the Sky — will renew
acquaintance in the Lonesome Glory. Demonstrative, whose previous best came in
novice stakes, rallied from slightly off the pace to capture the Turf Writers
Cup by a length over Charminster, who was making his U.S. debut for noted jumps
owner Irv Naylor. Farther back was Spy in the Sky, who had previously captured
the Grade 2 A.P. Smithwick Memorial in a photo finish.
Among the familiar faces in the Lonesome Glory lineup are Tax Ruling and
Divine Fortune. An Eclipse Award finalist last year after wins in the Colonial
Cup and Grade 1 Iroquois, front-running Tax Ruling has gone unplaced in both
starts this term. Fourth when trying to win the Iroquois for an unprecedented
third straight year, Tax Ruling next retreated to eighth in the Smithwick after
running out of gas at the top of the stretch.
Divine Fortune, a two-time winner of the Smithwick, ran second in the
Iroquois this past May, but didn’t fare quite as well during the Saratoga meet.
Fifth in his three-peat attempt in the Smithwick, the nine-year-old wound up
falling at the 10th fence in the Turf Writers Cup after taking a brief lead.
Another hoping to rebound from a fall in the Turf Writers Cup is Left Unsaid,
that race’s 1-2 favorite who had just missed catching Spy in the Sky in the
August 2 Smithwick. The ultra-consistent Tom Voss-trainee might vie for
favoritism in this spot.
Others of note in Thursday’s feature are Grade 1 veteran Pierrot Lunaire;
Smithwick third-placer All Together; History Boy, a dominating winner over
novice stakes company at Saratoga last out; and the Naylor-owned The Jigsaw Man,
seventh in the Turf Writers Cup in his U.S. debut.
Kicking off the Daily Double on Thursday is the $50,000
William
Entenmann Memorial, a restricted 2 1/4-mile hurdle.
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