Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Mott sends Speaker’s Corner against Life Is Good in Nerud
ELMONT, N.Y. – Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 John Nerud Stakes got a little more interesting Monday when trainer Bill Mott confirmed that Speaker’s Corner, third to Flightline in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 11, will run in the sevenfurlong race.
That sets up a meeting with Life Is Good, the multiple Grade 1 winner who is scheduled to make his first start since his fourthplace finish in the Dubai World Cup on March 27.
Mott said the Grade 1 Forego on Aug. 27 at Saratoga is the summer target for Speaker’s Corner but that he doesn’t want to wait until then to run and feels the Nerud is a good spot, regardless of competition.
“I think it’s the wrong thing to do, the way he is right now, not to run,” Mott said Monday. “My feeling is you can’t duck and dodge everybody. Every good race that comes up from now till the end of the year, you’re going to have one or two good horses in there. You can’t be afraid.”
Speaker’s Corner brought a three-race winning streak into the Met Mile and his confrontation with the unbeaten Flightline. Speaker’s Corner set the pace under Junior Alvarado, but could not successfully keep a slow-starting Flightline boxed in and was overtaken by both he and Happy Saver. Speaker’s Corner finished 8 1/4 lengths back.
Mott said Speaker’s Corner came out of the race “with a minor foot issue that has resolved and he’s doing great.”
Speaker’s Corner worked five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont main track.
With Alvarado committed to ride Olympiad in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on Saturday at Churchill Downs, Jose Ortiz has picked up the mount on Speaker’s Corner.
Life Is Good, who won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile last year and Pegasus World Cup this year, is hoping to use the Nerud as a stepping-stone to the Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 6 at Saratoga.
With Life Is Good and Speaker’s Corner now in the race, the Nerud figures to be a small field numbers-wise. Harvard and War Tocsin are probable. Officiating is possible.
Meanwhile, Mott said Cody’s Wish, who is nominated to the Nerud, is running in the Hanshin Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Charge It returns in Dwyer
Charge It, the Florida Derby runner-up who finished 17th in the Kentucky Derby, heads what is expected to be a small field of 3-year-olds for Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Dwyer Stakes going a mile at Belmont Park.
Charge It, trained by Todd Pletcher, won a one-turn mile maiden race by 8 1/2 lengths at Gulfstream Park in February before jumping right into the Florida Derby field, where he finished second to White Abarrio.
Pletcher believes Charge It displaced his palate in the Derby, which led to his 28-length defeat to Rich Strike. He has since undergone a procedure to address that.
With regular rider Luis Saez at Churchill Downs on Saturday, John Velazquez will ride Charge It in the Dwyer. Last Saturday, he worked five furlongs in 1:00.79.
Others under consideration for the Dwyer are Nabokov, a recent maiden winner for Chad Brown, No Sabe Nada, and Unbridled Bomber. Other possibles include Fluid Situation and one of three possibles for trainer Rodolphe Brisset – Barossa, Kuchar, or McLaren Vale.
◗ Aikhal, a Group 3 winner at The Curragh on Saturday, and Stone Age, winner of the Group 3 Irish Derby Trial – both trained by Aidan O’Brien – head the European contingent invited to the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Derby Invitational.
Nations Pride, a winner of 4 of 6 starts for trainer Charlie Appleby, also is a noteworthy invitee from Europe for the 1 1/4-mile turf race. Implementation, Machete, and Royal Patronage also are invited from Europe.
The U.S. contingent includes Annapolis, Emmanuel, and Grand Sonata for trainer Todd Pletcher, plus Limited Liability, Napoleonic War, Sy Dog, Stolen Base, and Tiz the Bomb.