Thursday, May 15, 2008
BELMONT NOTES, March 14, 2008
Casino Drive came out of his victory in Saturday’s Grade 2 Peter Pan as effortlessly and professionally as raced in his United States debut.
“He is happy; he loves it here and he is doing very well,” said Nobutaka Tada, managing director of Globe Equine Management Ltd., on Wednesday morning. “He could run in the Preakness.”
Of course, Casino Drive will not be running in Saturday’s 133rd running of the Preakness, the second leg of racing’s Triple Crown for three-year-olds (NBC, 6:15 p.m.). The spotlight at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. is on Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, and if he wins the mile and three-sixteenths race, he will look to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner when he comes to Belmont Park on June 7 for the 140th running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes, the “Test of the Champion.
Monday, May 12, 2008
BANROCK’S WAIT PAYS OFF IN KINGSTON HANDICAP
By Francis LaBelle Jr.
Nyala Farm’s Banrock doesn’t like to be rushed. The 5-year-old gelded son of 1994 Kentucky Derby winner Go for Gin will deliver a strong late kick as long as you are patient.
Sunday afternoon, Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux rode Banrock to perfection and came away with a head victory over favored Dave in the 20th running of the $113,700 Kingston Handicap for New York-breds at a mile and a sixteenth on the Widener Turf Course.
“He’s one tough hombre isn’t he?,” said winning trainer Tom Bush, as Banrock came through before a Mothers’ Day crowd of 7,695. “All we could say to Desormeaux was that this horse wants to move late, so wait as long as you can. That’s just what he did.”
Preakness News-May 11
BIG BROWN – Sunday’s assignment for the Kentucky Derby winner was a one-mile jog with a pony over the muddy track at Churchill Downs. Regular rider Michelle Nevin was aboard the son of Boundary, who will continue his Triple Crown quest in Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course. Since Big Brown’s Derby win, trainer Rick Dutrow has limited the colt’s exercise to jogging whenever the track has been wet. With only two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, Dutrow is determined not to put any stress on the unbeaten colt.
“I figure the lighter I train him the better, because everyone can see that he’s fit,” Dutrow said during the NTRA conference call on Thursday. “He’s got plenty of talent so I don’t want to squeeze anything out of him. If someone makes him run in the afternoon he’ll at least have it left in him. It’s as slow and easy with this horse as I can.”
Big Brown is scheduled to ship from Louisville to Pimlico on Wednesday.
