Todd Pletcher’s Belmont Stakes quintet had a quiet morning as they walked the
shedrow at Belmont Park on Tuesday.
“They all went to the gate (Monday), so there wasn’t a lot of action around
here,” said Michael McCarthy, Pletcher’s assistant.
Late Monday afternoon, Pletcher announced that the filly Unlimited Budget and
the lightly raced Midnight Taboo — both owned by Mike Repole — would join
Palace Malice, Revolutionary and Overanalyze in the race.
“Overanalyze is a Grade 1 winner, and he beat Oxbow by 5 1/4 lengths in the
Arkansas Derby,” Repole said. “He ran a sneaky-good race in the Kentucky Derby
where he was shuffled back but ran on, and I don’t think he loved the track.”
“I think this is one year where I think the fillies are as good as the boys,”
the owner said of his decision to run Unlimited Budget in the Belmont. “She ran
a good race when she was third in the Kentucky Oaks, and two fillies out of that
race, Midnight Lucky and Close Hatches, came back to run 1-2 in the Acorn.
Unlimited Budget is a large filly, and when the 15 horses come out you’ll think
she’s one of the colts. She also has a good mind for a mile and a half where
she’ll settle.”
“Midnight Taboo was talented as a two-year-old before he went back to the
farm,” the owner added. “He won his first race back, and he was a really good
second in his next race, a race he was never going to win. I think he would have
won the Easy Goer (on the Belmont undercard), but you get one chance in your
life to run in the Belmont Stakes, and he’s getting his chance.”
Unlimited Budget will have Rosie Napravnik aboard while Garrett Gomez will
ride Midnight Taboo. Already confirmed were Javier Castellano aboard
Revolutionary, John Velazquez on Overanalyze, and Mike Smith aboard Palace
Malice, whose blinkers will come off for the Belmont.
Pletcher, who saddled five horses in the Kentucky Derby, won the Belmont in
2007 with the filly Rags to Riches, who was the first of her sex to win the race
since Tanya in 1905.
Belmont Stakes contender Freedom Child had a quiet morning on Tuesday, going
out shortly after 7 a.m. (EDT) for what trainer Tom Albertrani called a routine
gallop.
“It was just an uneventful jog and gallop, his normal routine,” Albertrani
said. “He jogged back to the three-quarter pole, turned around and galloped a
mile and a half. It went well. He couldn’t be better.”
A chestnut son of Malibu Moon, Freedom Child is coming off a command
performance in winning the Peter Pan on May 11, leading from gate to wire to win
by 13 3/4 lengths under jockey Luis Saez, who will be back aboard for Saturday’s
Belmont.
“I couldn’t be more happy with the horse right now,” Albertrani said. “He’s
in great condition, and he’s giving us all the right signals. Now, we just have
to lead him over there.”
Albertrani said he wasn’t concerned about the prospect of having 15 horses
for the Belmont, which equals the largest field in the race’s 145-year history.
The last time as many as 14 went to the post was 1996.
“It’s not going to bother us,” he said. “We’re not going to be looking at
more than two or three in front of us. The rest will hopefully be behind me.”
Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com