Forge ready for firm, soft turf in Knickerbocker

ELMONT, N.Y. – Monday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Knickerbocker Stakes at Belmont Park is a tricky handicapping puzzle that ultimately Mother Nature may hold the key to solving.

Through Saturday – 20 days of the Belmont fall meet – there had been 107 turf races at this meet, none having been taken off the turf due to rain.

There is rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday that, while unlikely to force the Knickerbocker to the dirt, could soften what has been a very firm turf course this fall.

Eleven horses were entered for the Knickerbocker, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on turf. Forge, a son of Dubawi, is an improving 4-year-old who looks able to handle firm and soft turf as did his mother, the multiple Grade 1 winner Heat Haze. In June, Forge won a second-level allowance at Churchill Downs over firm turf. Last month, Forge finished second to the loose-on-the-lead Heart to Heart in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga.

“If it’s got a little cut in the ground maybe it won’t hurt him,” said Bill Mott, who trains Forge for Juddmonte Farms. “I don’t ever wish for bottomless ground.”

Forge will be trying 1 1/8 miles for the first time and will break from the outside post.

“The way he ran the other day I kind of felt like it was maybe worth a chance,” Mott said.

Forge finished 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Delta Prince in the Bernard Baruch. Prior to that race, Delta Prince had won three of four starts, with a halflength loss in the Grade 3 Appleton

at Gulfstream.

Jimmy Jerkens, Delta Prince’s trainer, didn’t think his horse “was quite the same” on the yielding turf as he was previously on firm. Jerkens said it is possible Delta Prince would run if the race is run on dirt. Jerkens said Delta Prince didn’t react well to getting dirt kicked back at him in his first two career starts where he finished third and second.

Muqtaser looks like a contender on firm ground and over a wet track. He won a second-level allowance race here last fall by 7 3/4 lengths in the slop. He is coming off a third-place finish, beaten a half-length, in the Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs on Sept. 9.

“Joe Bravo said with a little cleaner trip he thought he could have won, but he ran very well,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. “He’s gotten good. Bravo rides him well because he wants to be half a run-off.”

Sir Dudley Digges, trained by Mike Maker, has won three straight races over ground labeled good.

Blacktype has handled firm and soft turf and is coming off a win here Sept. 9.

Hello Don Julio, Smooth Daddy, and Mark My Style look like the pace of the race. Camelot Kitten, Spring Quality, and The Grey Gatsby complete the field. Vulcan’s Forge is entered to run only if the race is run on the dirt.