BELMONT High-level co-features top quality card

ELMONT, N.Y. – A pair of stakes-caliber allowance races, one on turf and one on dirt, top a high-quality nine-race Friday card at Belmont Park.

Race 8 is an $85,000 multiconditioned allowance scheduled for seven furlongs on turf that features a bevy of stakes winners who are looking to regain their form. That group is led by Bound for Nowhere, a Grade 2 winner from a year ago who is making his first start since he finished 13th in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 22.

Trainer Wesley Ward said Bound for Nowhere came out of that race with a pulled muscle high up in his hind end and needed some time off. Bound for Nowhere was scratched out of a 5 1/2-furlong allowance race Wednesday at Keeneland because Ward preferred the seven furlongs of this race and also didn’t want to run him against stablemate Undrafted, who did run Wednesday at Keeneland.

Bound for Nowhere shows a string of steady works on the turf at Keeneland for his return.

“He’s had one good work after another,” Ward said. “He’s fresh, fit . . . . If he runs back to his top form he’ll be a tough son of a gun to beat.”

Made You Look, trained by Chad Brown, is dropping into allowance company after two failed attempts in Grade 1 stakes. The last time Made You Look ran in an allowance race he won a race similar to Friday’s going a mile at Belmont on May 11, 2018.

Therapist is the only member of this field to have won on turf this year. That victory came in the Elusive Quality Stakes going seven furlongs here in April. Trainer Christophe Clement scratched Therapist out of last Saturday’s Mohawk Stakes at 1 1/16 miles for this race.

“I’ve always wanted to go back to seven-eighths,” Clement said. “Seven-eighths gives you some pace to run at. I’m sure it won’t be easy. It’s always competitive, but it’s a fun race.”

Maraud, Vici, Sand Dancer, and Axtell complete the field on turf. American Rule was entered to run on the main track.

Race 3 is a similar-conditioned allowance on dirt at 1 1/16 miles. You’re to Blame, second in the Grand Prix American Jockey Club to stablemate Marconi, had been considered for the Grade 2, $200,000 Marathon Stakes at Santa Anita on Nov. 1. But trainer Todd Pletcher and his owners Bortolazzo Stable called an audible and opted for this shorter spot. You’re to Blame’s one victory in five starts this year came at 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream.

“He’s consistently performed well. He’s versatile at different distances, has run respectable in multiple situations,” Pletcher said. “It seems like a competitive field, one which with his best effort he fits.”

The horse to beat may be Plainsman, who is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Kelso. Last year, he won a pair of one-turn races, including a 6 3/4-length victory in a firstlevel allowance going 1 1/16 miles over this track.

Bonus Points, Bon Raison, and Realm complete the field.