Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Hawkish to miss some time
ELMONT, N.Y. – The multiple stakes winner Hawkish, who had been under consideration for Sunday’s Grade 3 Poker Stakes at Belmont Park, will miss the bulk of the summer as he recovers from throat surgery, according to trainer Jimmy Toner.
Toner said Hawkish underwent surgery shortly after his victory in the Cliff Hanger Stakes at Monmouth in early May. Toner said the surgery was performed by Dr. Eric Parente at the New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania.
“He wasn’t getting full [lung] capacity,” Toner said. “The question was, do we keep going and wait for something to happen or stop now? This way, we can still have him back for the end of Saratoga and the fall.”
Toner said Hawkish, who last year won the Grade 2 Penn Mile, is at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland. Toner is hopeful to be able to start training Hawkish by the end of the month and point to the Bernard Baruch Handicap, which is now run Sept. 2, closing day at Saratoga.
Meanwhile, Toner will now point Hunter O’Riley to the Grade 1 United Nations Handicap at Monmouth Park on June 22 after the stewards scratched him from Friday’s Belmont Gold Cup. Hunter O’Riley was given an oral throat spray by a Toner employee at his barn the day of the race. Horses are not allowed to receive anything other than Lasix on race day.
Toner said he wasn’t at the barn when the spray was administered and called it “unfortunate.”
“It was unnecessary,” he said. “He was doing great.”
Voodoo Song gearing up
If any horse benefits from the extension of the Saratoga meet to eight weeks it’s Voodoo Song, who is 5 for 6 at the Spa including a victory in the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap last summer at Saratoga.
Voodoo Song, who has not run since last October, is training toward a return to racing, which will coincide with the Saratoga meet, which begins July 11.
On Sunday, Voodoo Song worked a half-mile in 48.21 seconds over the Belmont turf course. It was his second work since returning to trainer Linda Rice’s barn last month.
“He looks good, he’s doing well, he’s fresh, his two works have been good,” Rice said.
Voodoo Song had resumed training in April but had an issue with a hind leg that required stem cell therapy.
“It looks like he’s in pretty good shape,” Rice said.
Rice said she hopes to run Voodoo Song in the Grade 3, $150,000 Forbidden Apple on July 12. Voodoo Song won the Forbidden Apple last year, when it was run at Belmont. The Forbidden Apple is one of three stakes that were moved to Saratoga due to the extended meet.
“We got a month to have him ready for the Forbidden Apple. I think it’s realistic that we’ll have him here,” Rice said.
Rice also put the three-time dirt stakes winner Blindwillie McTell on the turf Sunday and he breezed half-mile in 48.44 seconds. Rice worked him on the turf to see if the $150,000 Spectacular Bid division of the New York Stallion Stakes, a seven-furlong stakes scheduled for turf on June 23, would be an option for him. Rice doesn’t see a good dirt option for the 3-yearold New York-bred son of Posse.
“It’s either two turns on dirt at Finger Lakes” in the New York Derby, “or seven-eighths on the turf,” Rice said. “I like [seven-eighths] better. I always thought he could handle the grass.”
Marconi headed for Suburban
The waiting wasn’t the hardest part of Belmont Stakes Day for trainer Todd Pletcher.
After going winless with seven horses in five stakes on Saturday’s card, Pletcher was the last trainer standing in the winner’s circle, getting his picture taken with Marconi following the Grade 2, $400,000 Brooklyn Invitational.
“I’m glad they had a 13th race yesterday,” Pletcher said Sunday morning.
It has proven to be worth the wait for Marconi, a $2 million yearling purchase who after going 1 for 6 has reeled off three consecutive stakes wins. The Brooklyn followed earlier wins in the Flat Out, also at Belmont, and the Skip Away Stakes at Gulfstream.
Pletcher will look to take advantage of Marconi’s apparent affinity for Belmont and long-distance races by pointing him to the Grade 2, $700,000 Suburban going 1 1/4 miles here on July 6.
“He’s run good races at Belmont, and there’s not a lot of opportunities at a mile and a quarter,” Pletcher said Sunday morning.
Pletcher noted that Coal Front, seventh in Saturday’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, will likely run next in the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 3. Coal Front, breaking from the rail in the Met Mile, broke sharply and found himself on the lead under Jose Ortiz early on in the Met Mile. He was pressed by the eventual winner, Mitole, through a halfmile in 44.38 and retreated in the lane.
“The race didn’t unfold the way we hoped,” Pletcher said. “He caught a flyer and Jose had to hold his position. He had Mitole at his throatlatch the whole way. He just got tired late. I’d like to stretch him out, keep the Whitney in mind.”