Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Tu Brutus doing too well to skip Flat Out Stakes
The Chilean import Tu Brutus ran an exceptional race in his North American debut, finishing second by a half-length to Send It In in the 1 1/4-mile Excelsior on April 8. He earned a 118 Beyer Speed Figure, the third-best in all of racing this year and only a single point behind Send It In’s figure and the number Arrogate earned in his Pegasus World Cup tour de force.
Following the race, trainer Gary Contessa planned to train Tu Brutus up to the Grade 2 Brooklyn Invitational, a 1 1/2-mile race on the June 10 Belmont Stakes undercard. But Tu Brutus had other ideas and instead will be a short-priced favorite Sunday at Belmont in the $100,000 Flat Out Stakes going 1 3/8 miles.
“The last two weeks, we can barely keep him on the ground,” Contessa said. “He’s been kicking and playing around coming off the track, so I thought it was better to run him here. We’re hoping for an easy race, but you never know.”
Tu Brutus is owned by Winning Move Stable and partners. He arrived at Contessa’s Florida barn in January. At the time, Contessa had other plans for him.
“The Excelsior was actually our third choice,” Contessa said. “I had a race for him at Gulfstream that didn’t go, and then I sent him north and put him on a van to Laurel for a stakes, and we got snowed out. After that, we lost a bunch of training time with him because of weather. I really think I only had him about 80 percent fit for the race.”
Tu Brutus raced on a clear lead in the Excelsior and was caught in deep stretch. Contessa doesn’t believe Sunday’s added distance or the 1 1/2 miles of the Brooklyn will be a problem for him. He also thinks he has other options.
“He’s the type of horse where if you work him five-eighths, he wants to run off for another five-eighths,” Contessa said. “He’ll run all day, but I also think we can shorten him up to 1 1/8 miles. He’s very pushbutton.”
Contessa will run a second Chilean-bred in the Flat Out, the long-winded Turco Bravo. But the strongest challenge to Tu Brutus is likely to come from Scuba, who concluded last season by winning three marathon stakes on dirt for trainer Brendan Walsh.
Scuba did not run well while making his 2017 debut in the 1 1/8-mile Ben Ali at Keeneland but should get back on track at this longer distance. Scuba may not have the early speed of Tu Brutus, but he does like to go to the lead. This could set up an interesting riders’ race between Kendrick Carmouche on Scuba and Irad Ortiz Jr. on Tu Brutus.
Options for Matt King Coal
Trainer Linda Rice said Matt King Coal came out of his runner-up finish in the $1.25 million Charles Town Classic well and that she is considering two races for his next start.
“We were thinking about the Pimlico Special as a next race, but we might give him more time than that,” Rice said. “It’s more likely we go to the Suburban, with a race before to get him there.”
The $300,000 Pimlico Special, a 1 3/16-mile race, will be run May 19, a day before the Preakness. The Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban is a 1 1/4-mile race at Belmont on July 8.
Matt King Coal just missed winning the April 22 Classic when he was run down in the closing yards by Imperative, who won the three-turn, 1 1/8-mile race by a neck. Matt King Coal, who tracked the early pace, took the lead on the final bend and battled hard through the stretch.
Matt King Coal, a $250,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. purchase at age 2 by Lady Sheila Stable, has had a few stops and starts in his career and has raced only nine times.
“He showed talent at 2, and we got him to the Wood Memorial the next year, but he came out of the race with a fractured pelvis, so we gave him six months off,” Rice said. “He popped a curb in December, and we gave him another month, but now we have a healthy 4-year-old.”
Rice is off to a terrific start this year and through Thursday had won 65 races from 209 starters (31 percent). Despite sending out only a modest number of starters at Laurel Park, she is in contention for leading trainer honors there.
Rice is 24 for 48 at the Laurel meet and trailed leading trainer Kieron Magee by only two wins coming into the Friday card. The Laurel meet, which began Jan. 1, ends Sunday.