It appears that neither the Kentucky Derby runner-up nor the race's third-place finisher will challenge Triple Crown hopeful Justify in the Belmont Stakes.
Trainer Todd Pletcher said Audible, third in the May 5 Derby at Churchill Downs, will skip the June 9 Belmont. Next up for the Into Mischief colt, Pletcher said via text, is the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational July 29 at Monmouth Park or the Grade 2 Jim Dandy July 28 at Saratoga Race Course.
Audible did not run in the Preakness and, said Pletcher, "I don't feel like he's doing quite as well as he was leading into the Derby. We've kind of had a couple of weeks here (at Belmont Park) where a lot of his training has been on sloppy tracks, but now that we've had some good weather and some good surfaces, I just don't feel like he's where he needs to be to feel like he's going to win the Belmont."
Good Magic, Derby runner-up and Preakness fourth-place finisher, is doubtful for the Belmont, which with Audible's defection has 11 possible starters.
A three-time Belmont winner, Pletcher is pointing Derby starters Vino Rosso (ninth) and Noble Indy (17th) to the mile-and-half "Test of the Champion" on Long Island. Vino Rosso won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Race Course and Noble Indy the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds.
Audible, the Grade 1 Florida Derby winner at Gulfstream Park, is owned by the same connections that race Derby and Preakness winner Justify. WinStar Farm and China Horse Club, co-owners of Audible and Justify with Starlight Racing and Head of Plains Partners, also race Quip, the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby runner-up and last of eight against Justify in the Preakness.
Before the Preakness and the announcement Friday about Audible, the possibility of winning with the "wrong" horse was mentioned to WinStar Farm president Elliott Walden.
"Obviously, you have a Triple Crown on the line, so there are all kinds of factors to it," said Walden, who trained 1998 Belmont and Arkansas Derby winner Victory Gallop against Triple Crown hopeful Real Quiet. "It's different when you've won two out of three than when you've won one out of three."
As of Friday, Belmont prospects were Justify, Vino Rosso, Bravazo, Noble Indy, Hofburg, Tenfold, Gronkowski, Free Drop Billy, Blended Citizen, Restoring Hope and last-out maiden winner Bandua.
Oaklawn Park winners Bravazo and Tenfold took the second and third spots in the Preakness, where Justify put away Good Magic and held off the closers on a sloppy Pimlico surface going a mile and three-sixteenths.
City of Light and Accelerate, one-two in the Grade 2 $750,000 Oaklawn Handicap for older horses on April 14, renew their rivalry today in the Grade 1 $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita.
Four-year-old City of Light won the Oaklawn Handicap by a neck going nine furlongs under Lake Hamilton High graduate Drayden Van Dyke. A two-time Grade 1 winner sprinting, the Quality Road colt stretches out to a mile and a quarter for trainer Michael McCarthy in the former Hollywood Gold Cup. Accelerate, trained by John Sadler, won the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap at 10 furlongs before coming to Oaklawn.
Sports on 05/26/2018