A pair of Nick Zito hopefuls for the Saturday’s $1 million Travers S. (G1)
worked over the muddy main track at Saratoga on Sunday.
BELLAMY ROAD (Concerto), a runaway winner of the Wood Memorial S. (G1) prior
to a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby (G1), blitzed a bullet five furlongs
in :59 4/5 in advance of his return. The dark bay colt worked in
company with allowance winners Chief Commander (Deputy Commander) and Go Now (Go
for Gin). The latter two both registered a time of 1:00 4/5 for five panels.
Also for Zito, stakes victor and Belmont S. (G1) runner-up ANDROMEDA’S HERO (Fusaichi Pegasus)
got his muddy five-eighths in 1:00 4/5 while in tandem with Confirmed (Unbridled’s
Song) and Indy Storm (A.P. Indy), who both ran five panels in 1:01 3/5. The
cgestnut sophomore is also pointing
for an expected start in the Travers.
“Both horses worked well,” Zito said. “(The track) definitely had a cushion.
You get tired when you work on a track like that. You can see the times, how
laboring the track probably was.”
Travers Day entries are taken on Wednesday, and a decision on Bellamy Road
will be made by Wednesday morning by Zito and owner George Steinbrenner of
Kinsman Stable. The connections are still contemplating on whether to go in the
Travers or the $250,000 King’s Bishop S. (G1) on the same day.
“Both races for Bellamy Road are obviously tough even though he’s an amazing
horse with a lot of ability,” Zito said. “They’re tough because one’s a sprint
race and you’re coming back against Lost in the Fog (Lost Soldier). On the other
hand, the Travers at a mile and a quarter…he hasn’t run in four months.”
As for Andromeda’s Hero, the strapping colt was equipped with blinkers for
his morning drill, and he will race with them for the initial time in the
Travers.
“He worked good,” Zito stated. “He got a lot of dirt in his face. I put
blinkers on him and it looked like he moved a little bit. They’re not severe
blinkers, but they’re enough to make him focus.”
In other Travers news:
Multiple Grade 2-placed REVERBERATE (Thunder Gulch) jogged over a sloppy
track on Sunday morning and is likely to work on Monday or Tuesday, depending on
track conditions. The colt will attempt to take his first graded score in the
Travers.
“The horse is doing very well,” trainer Sal Russo said. “He’s physically
stronger than he was in June and it seems that mentally, everything has come
together.”
Jockey Jose Santos, who has been aboard the colt for his last three starts,
will once again ride.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said he will likely send out FLOWER
ALLEY (Distorted Humor) for his final drill on Monday morning, in company with
champion Ashado (Saint Ballado). Flower Alley, who was out this morning for a
gallop, is coming off arguably his finest performance to date, a facile score in
the Jim Dandy S. (G2) over the Saratoga surface. Pletcher preferred to wait
until better weather to officially breeze the multiple Grade 2 hero.
“I felt I had a better chance for a good track tomorrow,” Pletcher said.
“Today was one of those days that I would only work a horse if I felt it was the
only day I could work them.”
Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith’s maiden winner CHEKHOV (Pulpit) galloped on Saratoga’s
Oklahoma training track this morning for conditioner Patrick Biancone.
“He jogged good,” Biancone said of the Haskell Invitational (G1)
fourth-place runner. “He looks good and he’s been working
great.”
ROMAN RULER (Fusaichi Pegasus), the likely favorite for the Travers off a 1
1/4-length win in the Haskell, will put
in his final prep for the Travers either Monday or Tuesday, according to Tonja
Terranova, trainer Bob Baffert’s New York assistant.
Dana Barnes, one of Baffert’s top exercise riders in the Golden State, is in
town to prepare Roman Ruler for the Travers.