True North a hard field to read

ELMONT, N.Y. – Top to bottom, right to left, any way you look at it, the Grade 2 True North is a challenging way to begin a $500,000-guaranteed pick four Friday at Belmont Park.

The $250,000 True North is race 8 and one of five stakes on an 11-race program. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint has a field of eight, but Limousine Liberal was cross-entered in Saturday’s Met Mile and is expected to start there.

If you like West Coast shipper Bobby Abu Dhabi, whose form is clear to see, you can save your bullets for later in the sequence, which continues with the New York Stakes, Belmont Gold Cup, and a maiden race on turf.

But if you aren’t completely sold on the likely starting favorite, the ability of the leading East Coast and Midwest runners is somewhat hidden.

Imperial Hint and Whitmore come out of the Grade 2 Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard, which was contested over a sloppy, testing main track and won by Limousine Liberal.

Imperial Hint, the 6-5 favorite, set the pace in the sevenfurlong race before weakening to sixth. He was beaten 4 1/4 lengths.

His trainer, Luis Carvajal Jr., believes the track conditions got to his horse in the stretch. Carvajal is upbeat about how his Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up has trained since, and on Wednesday pronounced him “ready to rumble.”

The winner of 9 of 15 starts will likely face company on the lead from Bobby Abu Dhabi, Recruiting Ready, Westwood, and possibly Always Sunshine.

Whitmore, as per his style, was far back in the Churchill Downs. He made up considerable ground but had some traffic problems in upper stretch and had to run through a sea of flying mud.

Trainer Ron Moquett liked Whitmore’s effort.

“I think he would have been a hero with a good trip,” he said. “But when you have a closer, you need certain things to go your way. We also were trying seven-eighths and a sloppy track for the first time.

Whitmore finished third in the True North a year ago but didn’t run his “A” race. Moquett laid out a different schedule this year and has run Whitmore three times rather than four, and brings him into the True North off a five-week break instead of three.

Westwood has shown a world of ability for Kiaran McLaughlin and enters off his first stakes win. The Godolphin-owned and -bred son of Bernardini will be moving up in class.

“This is the next logical step for him, but it’s a tough, tough race,” McLaughlin said. “I like that we’re drawn towards the outside.”

Trained by Charlton Baker, Joking will make his first start since he won the Grade 1 Vosburgh in October 2016. In his prior start, he won that year’s True North.

He came down with pneumonia after being shipped to California for the 2016 Breeders’ Cup. His return to the races has been delayed by splint bone injuries. This is a difficult comeback spot.

Bobby Abu Dhabi has upped his game for Peter Miller since returning from a seven-month layoff in December. He enters this race off a sharp score in the Grade 2 Kona Gold at Santa Anita and a second to eventual Oaklawn Handicap winner City of Light in the Grade 1 Triple Bend.

Miller sent out Roy H to win last year’s True North. By season’s end, Roy H was voted an Eclipse Award as champion male sprinter.