Tuesday, October 13, 2009

BELMONT PARK NOTES: Monday, October 12, 2009

ELMONT, N.Y. – IEAH Stables President Mike Iavarone woke up Monday morning with a flu bug, but nothing could bring him down following the tremendous performance of his horses this past weekend.

Recent IEAH purchase Diamondrella won the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland, turf star Court Vision returned to the races a ridgling and took the Grade 1, $600,000 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes, and Burley’s Gold put in a big run to finish second to Girolamo in the Grade 2, $150,000 Jerome at Belmont Park.


“He ran his eyeballs out,” Iavarone said of Burley’s Gold, a difficult 3-year-old son of Touch Gold who has begun to focus on business for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. “He came out fine. He’s quirky. We’ve gone through this horse from head to toe. He runs with his head high; he changes leads weird. We’ve got a future with him as long as he stays together.”

IEAH has its upcoming battle plans all laid out: Burley’s Gold will run next in the Grade 3, $100,000 Discovery, a 1⅛-mile race for 3-year-olds on November 21 at Aqueduct. Court Vision will go to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile after Iavarone and Dutrow had toyed with the idea of running him in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Diamondrella, trained by Angel Penna, is a more complicated matter.

“I’m going to talk to Penna this week,” Iavarone said. “We’ll look at the 6½ [furlongs] down the hill [for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint], but if he thinks we have to go a mile around two turns, we can’t keep them apart. I’m not going to penalize Angel because of Court Vision.

“I think Court Vision is going to run an electrifying race,” Iavarone said.

Two-year-old filly Amen Hallelujah, in her first start for Dutrow, finished third off a wide trip in the Grade 1, $500,000 Darley Alcibiades on Friday at Keeneland and will be pointed toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

That’s not all: Champion Stardom Bound, who won five straight Grade 1 stakes races as a juvenile last year, will return to the races for the first time since her third-place finish in the Ashland this past spring in the Grade 1, $300,000 Gazelle, a 1⅛-mile race for 3-year-old fillies November 28 at Aqueduct.

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Girolamo, winner of Sunday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Jerome Handicap, exited the race in good order according to Godolphin assistant Rick Mettee.

“He came out of the race in good shape, but no decision has been made on his next start,” Mettee said. “He could stay here in New York and point toward the [Grade 1, $300,000 Hill ‘n’ Dale Cigar Mile on November 28 at Aqueduct], or he might go out to California for the Breeders’ Cup, or to Dubai. He could do a lot of things from here.”

Mettee added that the weekend’s racing had helped to clarify the Breeders’ Cup picture for Godolphin’s runners, many of whom have campaigned in New York over the past year.

Cocoa Beach (CHI), third by a neck in the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, is likely for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic going nine furlongs on Friday, November 6.

“I thought she ran a good race, her best of the year probably to be third in a Grade 1,” Mettee said of the mare’s effort behind Zenyatta, undefeated in 13 starts, in the Lady’s Secret.

Earlier this year, Cocoa Beach won the De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on August 5, then ran fourth in the Grade 2 Ballston Spa on August 29, both grass contests.

Also expected to run in the Ladies’ Classic is 4-year-old Music Note, a dual Grade 1 winner in New York this year in the $600,000 Beldame here on October 3 and the $300,000 Ballerina at Saratoga on August 29.

Godolphin also has two probable entrants for the Grade 1, seven-furlong Filly & Mare Sprint on the same day in Sara Louise and Seventh Street, both of whom have come out of summer campaigns in New York.

Sara Louise, a 3-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon, was beaten a head by Indian Blessing in her most recent start, the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom here on September 26, a race she entered off a win in the Grade 3 Victory Ride at Saratoga on August 29. Seventh Street won the Grade 1 Go For Wand Handicap at Saratoga on August 2, a victory sandwiched between second-place finishes in other Grade 1 contests in New York, the Ogden Phipps at Belmont on June 13 and the Ruffian Handicap here on September 12.

Finally, Gayego, winner of the Grade 1 Ancient Title Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday, likely will run in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Off since March, the colt made his comeback start in an allowance race at Saratoga on August 17, winning that contest by a length.

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Johanna Louise Glen-Teven’s ace turfer Proudinsky will return to the races after four months on the sidelines next Sunday in the Grade 3, $100,000 Knickerbocker, a 1⅛-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up on the Belmont Park inner turf course.

The 6-year-old German-bred son of Silvano, trained by Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, has been involved in some big-time turf races the past couple years: He missed catching Big Brown by a neck in a thrilling Monmouth Stakes last year, won the Grade 2 Mervin H. Muniz Jr. Memorial Handicap this past May at the Fair Grounds and finished a close third in this year’s Monmouth Stakes in June behind speed king Presious Passion. That horse traveled to Santa Anita on Sunday and wired the field in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship Stakes.

Jose Cuervas, assistant to Frankel, said Proudinsky has been in training throughout his break, having missed two assignments that subsequently were taken off the turf.

“He’s been working all along,” Cuervas said. “He’s doing very good right now. We expect him to win. He looks like a million dollars.”

Cuervas said Proudinsky will school in the paddock on Friday, likely between the third and fourth races.

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Shopping for a race on firm turf, trainer H. Graham Motion hopes he has finally found his spot in the Grade 3, $100,000 Knickerbocker this Sunday at Belmont Park for promising 4-year-old French-bred Yorktown.

Owned by Earle I. Mack, Yorktown was entered in the Grade 2, $250,000 Kelso, a one-mile turf race at Belmont on Oct. 4, but was scratched after the race was rained off to the dirt. Motion shifted gears and entered in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday but didn’t even ship the horse to Keeneland when the course came up yielding.

Stakes-placed in France and coming off a strong allowance score at Monmouth, Motion hopes for good things from Yorktown in the Knickerbocker.

“We weren’t looking to run him on soft ground,” Motion said. “He obviously handles firm ground very well. I’m a little frustrated I haven’t gotten to run.”

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Trainer David Duggan reported that Johanna Murphy-Leopoldsberger’s Porte Bonheur, third in the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday, would skip the Breeders’ Cup and point instead toward the Grade 2, $150,000 Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct on November 27.

“She ran credibly, but not good enough for the Breeders’ Cup,” Duggan said. “We’ll regroup and point her toward the race at Aqueduct.”

Earlier this year, Porte Bonheur ran second in the Vagrancy Handicap on May 24 and won the Top Flight Handicap on June 28, both Grade 2 contests at Belmont.