Bellamy Road readying for Saratoga run; Noble Causeway off
for six weeks
Wood Memorial S. (G1) hero BELLAMY ROAD (Concerto), unraced since an
off-the-board finish in the Kentucky Derby (G1), breezed five furlongs in a
bullet 1:00 1/5 over Saratoga’s sloppy track at Saratoga on Saturday. Clockers
for the New York Racing Association (NYRA) caught the near black colt in :22 3/5
and :47 2/5 splits. The sophomore galloped out six furlongs in 1:14 and
seven-eighths in 1:28 2/5 under exercise rider Maxine Correa.
“The rider was just sitting there,” said recent Hall of Fame inductee Nick
Zito. “That’s the kind of horse he is. Knock on wood, everything’s good.”
Bellamy Road is headed for either the King’s Bishop S. (G1) or Travers S.
(G1), both on August 27 at Saratoga.
“We’re just going to keep our options open,” Zito said. “He’s going to run
somewhere at the meet. Never say, ‘Never.’ When that horse is right, he runs
with anybody.
“The King’s Bishop is extremely tough with Lost in the Fog (Lost Soldier). On
the other hand, we have the conditioning thing going a mile and a quarter (in
the Travers). There are two dilemmas to talk about.”
Bellamy Road popped a splint in his left foreleg after the Derby and didn’t
return to the worktab until July 16.
Another of Zito’s trainees, Grade 1 runner-up NOBLE CAUSEWAY (Giant’s
Causeway), who was a gate scratch out of the Jim Dandy S. (G2) before being
pulled up in his subsequent start in an allowance last week, will get time off after a pebble was found in his left ankle. The chestnut
colt was taken to Rood and Riddle Equine Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky, after
being pulled up and examined by Dr. Larry Bramlage.
“He has no stress fractures,” Zito said. “Dr. Bramlage found a little pebble
in his left ankle and found something in his right-side suspensory. Monday,
we’re going to take the pea or pebble in his left ankle and he’s going to treat
the right suspensory. He’ll need two weeks in the stall, three weeks hand
walking and he’ll be back on the track in six weeks.”
Zito believes the injuries happened in the Derby, where Noble Causeway ran
14th, and just weren’t noticed.
“There’s no question in my mind that’s when he got hurt,” he said. “We didn’t
realize it and that’s why we kept pursuing all the trials and tribulations. The
horse was trying to tell us something. He got banged in the Derby and was the
worst as far as all the horses having a bad trip.”