O’Brien trio won’t have it easy in stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Aidan O’Brien is sending a trio of horses from Ireland to compete in Saturday’s two seven-figure, Grade 1 turf stakes for 3-yearolds at Belmont Park, but he doesn’t appear to be holding as strong a hand as in past years.

For the $1.2 million Belmont Derby, O’Brien is sending Whitecliffsofdover and Homesman, neither of whom was on the original invitee list published by the New York Racing Association.

Whitecliffsofdover, a son of War Front who sold for $1.15 million as a yearling in 2015 at Keeneland, is only 2 for 7 in his career. At 2, he finished third in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Chantilly, a onemile race. Most recently, he finished 15th of 20 in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 21.

Homesman, also a Kentuckybred son of War Front, is 2 for 5 in his career, with a head victory in a Group 3 stakes at The Curragh in May. Most recently, he finished fifth in the King George V Stakes on June 22 at Royal Ascot.

O’Brien won last year’s Belmont Derby with Deauville and also sent out the third-place finisher, Long Island Sound. In 2014, O’Brien finished second in the Belmont Derby with Adelaide.

O’Brien is winless with four runners in three runnings of the Belmont Oaks. This year, he will send out Key To My Heart, who was not on the original list of Oaks invitees. Key To My Heart is 2 for 10 and is coming off a 2 3/4-length victory in the listed Irish Oaks Trial Stakes on June 28. This will be Key To My Heart’s third race in three weeks, as she finished seventh in the Group 3 Munster Oaks on June 18.

Entries for the Belmont Derby and Oaks were to be taken Tuesday. As of Monday, the 11 horses expected for the Derby were Arklow, Big Score, Called to the Bar, Good Samaritan, Homesman, Makarios, Oscar Performance, Senior Investment, Ticonderoga, Whitecliffsofdover, and Yoshida. Frostmourne was questionable for the race as he is also being considered for the Kent Stakes at Delaware Park on July 15.

The 11 horses expected for the Oaks were Beau Recall, Coasted, Daddys Lil Darling, Dynatail, Grizzel, Journey Home, Key To My Heart, New Money Honey, Sistercharlie, Uni, and Violet Blue.

Shaman Ghost sharpens

After winning the 158th running of the Queen’s Plate on Sunday at Woodbine with the 3-year-old filly Holy Helena, owner Frank Stronach and trainer Jimmy Jerkens will now turn their attention to Saturday’s 131st renewal of the Suburban Handicap, which this year has a purse of $750,000, up from $500,000 in the previous three years.

Shaman Ghost, the winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and Pimlico Special this year and the Queen’s Plate in 2015, will look to give Jerkens his third consecutive victory in the Suburban, a race he won in 2015 and 2016 with Effinex.

On Sunday, Shaman Ghost worked five furlongs in 1:00.07 over the Belmont training track. Shaman Ghost came home in 24.00 seconds while being asked by exercise rider Kelvin Pahal. Jerkens said he wanted a sharp work because he’s leery of Matt King Coal being alone on the lead in what is likely to be a short field in the Suburban.

“That’s why I wanted to sharpen him up a little bit yesterday,” Jerkens said. “That horse looks like he’ll be on the lead by himself.”

Others expected for the 10-furlong Suburban are Follow Me Crev, third to Shaman Ghost in the Santa Anita Handicap, Keen Ice, Sunny Ridge, and Watershed.

Blinkers help Unified in work

When Jimmy Jerkens gave Unified his last serious workout for Saturday’s Grade 2, $350,000 Belmont Sprint Championship, he equipped the colt with blinkers even though he has never run in them and won’t on Saturday.

In that workout on June 29, Unified went five furlongs in 1:00.27, the fastest of 17 breezes at the distance.

“Sometimes when he’s by himself on the main track, he’s in la-la land, and I wanted to work him on the track he’s going to run on,” Jerkens said. “I just wanted to make sure he was on the bit a little bit.”

Unified has four wins from six starts. One loss came by a neck to Green Gratto in the Carter on April 8, a race from which he emerged with filling in a hind leg. The other loss was a fifth in last year’s Grade 3 Pegasus, a race around two turns.

In the Belmont Sprint, which awards an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar, Unified will be reunited with Jose Ortiz, who has ridden him four times. Ortiz was at Keeneland on April 8, and Javier Castellano rode Unified that day.

Those expected for the Belmont Sprint include Mind Your Biscuits, Green Gratto, Awesome Slew, Cadeyrn, Fellowship, Stallwalkin’ Dude, and Tommy Macho.

◗ Gun Runner, the sevenlength winner of the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 17, worked a halfmile in 50.42 seconds on Monday over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. Gun Runner is pointing to the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 5.