Penner Ash gets some changes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Nine days after claiming Penner Ash out of a winning effort for $50,000, trainer Carlos Martin is returning the 4-year-old colt to the races at a longer distance and with a change of equipment.

Martin has entered Penner Ash in a starter allowance for horses that have started for a price of $50,000 or less and are also eligible for a firstlevel allowance condition. The 1 1/8-mile turf race serves as the feature on a nine-race Sunday card at Belmont Park.

Though Penner Ash won his one-mile race for Mike Maker on May 26, Martin felt the horse ran a bit spotty so he is adding blinkers to the colt’s equipment.

“He seemed like he had more to give the day I claimed him. He was running in spots,” Martin said Friday. “He galloped out pretty well that day. He’s just starting to learn how to run. If he can run back to the race that I claimed him out of or even improve a little, I think that makes him one of the top contenders on numbers.”

Martin admitted that making an equipment change off a win opens him up for criticism, “but I don’t think there’s much downside to try,” he said.

Martin also entered More Than Work in this field of 10. Martin claimed More Than Work for $30,000 out of a winning effort on turf. He ran him in this same condition May 21, but the race came off the turf. Martin ran him anyway, and the horse ran fifth, beaten six lengths, under Manny Franco.

“Manny said, ‘Please get him back on grass,’ ” Martin said.

Franco rode both Penner Ash and More Than Work in their last starts. Martin said he had Franco committed to ride More Than Work before he decided to enter Penner Ash, who will be ridden by Joel Rosario.

The horse to beat Sunday is probably Blame D Rule Maker, who comes in off a win at Laurel in maiden special weight company. He only started once for a tag, that being a runner-up finish for $50,000 in a race run in the slop Oct. 2 at Aqueduct.

In his April 15 win at Laurel, Blame D Rule Maker reeled in a loose-on-the-lead Coast Along to win by a head, while finishing nine lengths ahead of the third-place horse.

Two starts back, Blame D Rule Maker was fourth, 10 1/4 lengths behind Carl Spackler, a Chad Brown trainee who won by 8 3/4 lengths that day.

Trainer Jorge Duarte believes Blame D Rule Maker will handle the stretch out to nine furlongs, though he is leery of the speed-favoring nature of the Belmont turf course.

“He kinds of grind his way,” Duarte said. “It’ll be nice to see him settle on that big track and make a big run, though it seems speed’s kind of good there so we’ll see.”

Urban Myth, trained by Keri Brion, looks like one who should be able to handle the 1 1/8-mile distance of this race. His lone win came for maiden $20,000 claiming at Gulfstream in February when trained by Jena Antonucci.

Winning Connection tries turf for the first time. Born a Gambler has run well going 1 1/16 miles. Prayer Book, Parquetry, No Regard, and Pioneering Spirit complete the field.