Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Brown isn’t bluffing in Poker
ELMONT, N.Y. – The Poker is one of the few turf stakes at Belmont Park that isn’t on trainer Chad Brown’s résumé. On Sunday, he’ll have a better than 50 percent chance to change that when he sends out half the field in the Grade 3, $300,000 Poker at a mile over the Widener turf course.
Brown doesn’t just send out three of the six runners for the turf, he has the probable top two choices in Projected and Catapult. Those two ran second and fourth behind World Approval in the Grade 2 Dixie at Pimlico on May 20.
Projected had the smoother trip of the two, while Catapult was steadied and checked a couple of times.
“Catapult was fighting the restraint of the rider early,” Brown said. “It wasn’t a good trip for him. Probably should have just went to the lead.”
That might be the plan Sunday because the Poker field appears to lack true speed. Projected came from off the pace to win an allowance race at Keeneland, beating next-out stakes winners Divisidero and Pleuven.
Night Prowler, Brown’s third entrant, won multiple graded stakes at age 3. Over the last two seasons, he has gone just 1 for 5.
Lubash, the 10-year-old New York-bred warrior, will be making his 54th career start in the Poker. He finished fifth in this race in 2013. Bolting, a Kentucky-bred son of War Front who has raced exclusively in France, and Ballagh Rocks complete the field for turf. Weekend Hideaway was entered for the main track only.
Jerkens stars work together
The last time Shaman Ghost and Dolphus came charging down the stretch together was in the Pimlico Special, where Shaman Ghost edged his stablemate by a neck in the Grade 3, $300,000 race.
On Thursday morning at Belmont Park, Shaman Ghost and Dolphus came charging down the stretch together on even terms while working for their next engagements.
Shaman Ghost and Dolphus were basically together through a six-furlong move in 1:14.80 over the Belmont training track. Shaman Ghost is pointing to the Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban here July 8, while Dolphus is being considered for the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap the same day at Prairie Meadows.
In Thursday’s work, the pair went their first three furlongs in 36.09 seconds and their last three furlongs in 38.71 while both in hand. Rajiv Maragh was on Dolphus, and Kelvin Pahal was on Shaman Ghost.
“They both were due for a halfway decent work,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said. “They’re not horses that are going to get too rank, so I thought it would be okay.”
About an hour later, Jerkens sent out Unified for a slow sixfurlong work on the main track that went in 1:17.15. Working by himself, Unified went in splits of 13.46, 26.95, 39.81, and 52.14 and galloped out seven furlongs in 1:30.97. Unified is pointing to the Grade 2, $350,000 Belmont Sprint Championship on July 8.
“I don’t want every work to be fast,” Jerkens said. “You work them fast all the time, then they just get keyed up. His next couple right before the race will be good.”
Joking back in training
Joking, the Grade 1 Vosburgh winner who got sick after arriving in Southern California last fall for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, has returned to training at Belmont Park and is being pointed to a latesummer/fall campaign, said Charlton Baker, the horse’s owner and trainer.
Joking started jogging about two weeks ago and will begin galloping in a week or so. Baker said Joking could return to the work tab by the end of June.
“He came in a little fat but looking great,” Baker said. “Keep our fingers crossed he could come back to where he was, or even a notch below is fine with me.”
When last seen on the track, Joking won the Vosburgh at Belmont Park last fall. That win earned Joking a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita. After shipping west, Joking came down with a temperature. He eventually developed pneumonia, and his condition was touch-and-go for a little while. He spent most of his recovery time at a farm in Southern California before shipping to the equine surgeon Patty Hogan’s New Jersey farm a few months ago.
“I told the vet in California, ‘If any horse can [return], he can do it,” Baker said. “He’s just got a huge heart – he fights through everything.”
Giant Expectations back home
The dominance of California-based horses here recently was not restricted to Belmont Stakes weekend.
Giant Expectations, a New York-bred based in Southern California, shipped to New York a few weeks ago and won two races in a span of 11 days for trainer Peter Eurton. On May 29, Giant Expectations won a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race by 9 3/4 lengths. On June 8, he won a statebred first-level allowance at a mile by 2 1/2 lengths, earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
Eurton said Wednesday that Giant Expectations is back with him in Southern California while he and owners Daniel Gatto and Ryan Exline discuss future plans.
“The owners wanted to get him back here for a while,” Eurton said. “Two races back to back was not easy on the horse, but he came out of it looking really good. We’re going to see what our options are. We haven’t really sat down and penciled down exactly what we want to do.”
Though both of Giant Expectations’s wins came in one-turn races, Eurton thinks the son of Frost Giant can go two turns.
“I don’t see him being strictly a one-turn horse at all,” Eurton said. “I think further is definitely something he can do. Going a mile and an eighth, the pace is easier.”
One race that could lure Giant Expectations back to New York is the $300,000 Empire Classic on Oct. 21 at Belmont. The Empire Classic is run at 1 1/8 miles around one turn.