Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Bee Jersey facing stern test
ELMONT, N.Y. – It hasn’t been the four wins Bee Jersey has recorded by a combined 22 1/4 lengths since last October that has surprised his trainer Steve Asmussen.
“The only thing that has surprised me is the one time he got beat,” Asmussen said.
Saturday, Bee Jersey faces his most difficult task to date when he meets 10 rivals in the Grade 1, $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park. The Met Mile, being run for the 125th time, is the second-richest race on a 13-race, 10-stakes card that is highlighted by Justify’s Triple Crown bid in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes.
The 11 horses in the Met Mile field have combined to win 30 stakes – 25 graded – and earn more than $11.9 million. With only $326,312 in earnings and the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile highlighting his résumé, Bee Jersey, on paper, may be the least accomplished member of the field.
But on the track, he has speed to burn and may prove difficult to catch.
“The more and more you watch his replays, the more and more impressive he is, both in the allowance at Keeneland and in the Steve Sexton Mile last time out,” said Chad Summers, trainer of Met Mile morningline favorite Mind Your Biscuits. “Steve Asmussen, once he gets a horse in a kind of rhythm, he’s a tough guy to beat.”
Bee Jersey, a 4-year-old son of the Grade 1 winner Jersey Town owned and bred by Charles Fipke, began his career in Dubai where he went winless in four tries under the care of Doug Watson. Transferred to Asmussen last summer, Bee Jersey won his maiden in October at Keeneland before finishing second in an allowance at Churchill in November. This year, he is 3 for 3, all front-running victories in two-turn mile races at Oaklawn, Keeneland, and Lone Star.
“The horse is very handy, has been very clean away from there, and I think he is going to run a very fast mile,” Asmussen said.
There does not appear to be much other speed in the Met Mile, leaving Bee Jersey the likely pacesetter from post 10 under Ricardo Santana Jr.
“He’s got a great draw to do whatever he wants,” Asmussen said
Mind Your Biscuits is a Grade 1 stakes winner at six and seven furlongs. In his only graded try at a mile, he finished a wellbeaten second in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.
That was running back four weeks after a third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Saturday, Mind Your Biscuits will be running 10 weeks after winning the Dubai Golden Shaheen.
Summers said that when he bought Mind Your Biscuits he always felt the horse would stretch out in distance.
“He doesn’t act like a sprinter. He’s very push-button,” Summers said.
Mind Your Biscuits is the 122-pound highweight and breaks from the rail under Joel Rosario.
Bolt d’Oro will attempt to become the first 3-year-old to win the Met Mile since Honour and Glory in 1996. That year, Honour and Glory finished third in the Santa Anita Derby and 18th in the Kentucky Derby.
Bolt d’Oro, a multiple Grade 1 winner at 2, finished second in the Santa Anita Derby and 12th in the Kentucky Derby. Owner-trainer Mick Ruis kept Bolt d’Oro in Kentucky after the Derby, training him at Keeneland, where he threw in some eye-catching works, including a five-furlong move in 57 seconds.
“We’re going against older horses,” Ruis said. “If there was a year that you were going to go to the Met Mile, this is looking like a pretty good spot for him. He’ll probably be third or fourth choice. He should run really good.”
Florent Geroux will ride Bolt d’Oro, who is in at 114 pounds.
Limousine Liberal was crossentered in Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 True North at 6 1/2 furlongs and the Met Mile. On Thursday, trainer Ben Colebrook said Limousine Liberal would run in the Met Mile.
Colebrook has said he felt the horse would appreciate the wider turns of Belmont.
Warrior’s Club, trained by D. Wayne Lukas, traded decisions with Limousine Liberal, beating him a neck in the Grade 3 Commonwealth at Keeneland before losing a head decision in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs, both at seven furlongs.
Awesome Slew, third in the Churchill Downs, finished fourth in this race last year. Trainer Mark Casse felt he brought Awesome Slew to New York too late for this race last year. This year, he got him here early to give him time to acclimate.
McCraken and Good Samaritan were graded stakes winners last year at 3. McCraken made a successful 4-year-old debut in a one-turn mile allowance race at Churchill that was designed as a prep for this race. Good Samaritan, a graded winner on turf and dirt, has never raced shorter than 1 1/16 miles on dirt. He is coming off a third in the Grade 2 Alysheba at Churchill on May 4.
California shipper Ransom the Moon is a Grade 1 winner at six furlongs and tries stretching out to a mile on dirt for the first time.
One Liner, who dead-heated for second in the Pimlico Special, and Discreet Lover, winner of the Grade 3 Excelsior, round out the Met Mile field.