Belmont pick: Irish War Cry

Favorite Classic Empire pulls out of race

NEW YORK — Irish War Cry is back on the Triple Crown trail as the 7-2 favorite for the Belmont Stakes.

The colt claimed that status after favorite Classic Empire was forced out Wednesday because of an abscess in his right front hoof.

No one was more surprised at the turn of events than Irish War Cry trainer Graham Motion. He left his base in Fair Hill, Md., early in the day and when he arrived in New York, his colt was the favorite in the 12horse field Saturday.

“It’s just very odd,” he said after Wednesday’s draw at Rockefeller Plaza. “This goes to show how quickly things can go wrong. It just takes a little thing like a foot abscess. They’re animals, and things can go wrong at any time.”

Classic Empire was runner-up in the Preakness May 20. He was fourth in the Kentucky Derby.

He had been training well up to the Belmont before trainer Mark Casse found the abscess on Wednesday. It’s a recurrence of the problem that bothered Classic Empire after his loss in the Holy Bull in February.

“He’s such a tough horse, he doesn’t really let you know until it’s really painful to him,” Casse said. “If he hadn’t, he would have run in the race and probably not run as well, and then have it flare up. I’m looking toward it as a bright spot, that he showed it three days out and not the day after.”

Casse said Classic Empire will train for this summer’s Haskell Invitational.

The Belmont was already without the Kentucky Derby (Always Dreaming) and Preakness (Cloud Computing) winners. The field features a mix of horses that ran in one or both of those races and others.

“I don’t think there’s a horse in here you’d be surprised if they won,” Motion said. “It’s a great betting race from that point of view.”

Irish War Cry drew the No. 7 post.

The colt finished a disappointing 10th in the Kentucky Derby and skipped the Preakness. Motion is hoping Irish War Cry will bounce back the way he did from a similarly puzzling seventhplace result in the Fountain of Youth to win the Wood Memorial in April.