Belmont 2018 news: 'Legit' Blended Citizen puts in public breeze
The SayJay Racing, Greg Hall and Brooke Hubbard-owned Blended Citizen, winner of the Grade 3 Peter Pan on May 12, breezed a commanding five furlongs in 1:00.64 over the Belmont Park main track just before the first race on Saturday afternoon, his final serious move before his anticipated start in the 2018 Belmont Stakes.
The two-time Grade 3 winner took to the track alongside a pony at 12:45 p.m. in a special time reserved for the Doug O'Neill trainee.
Under jockey Mike Luzzi, the Proud Citizen colt began from the half-mile pole and ran the first eighth of a mile in 12.65 seconds and the quarter in 24.25, hitting the wire in 47.93, before finishing in 1:00.64 under the wire. NYRA clockers caught Blended Citizen galloping out six furlongs in 1:17.58. The smooth-moving colt did all the work, said Luzzi.
"He covers a lot of ground. He's a Cadillac," Luzzi said. "Obviously we know he likes the track. I wish the best of luck to them next week."
Assistant trainer Leandro Mora, who has been with O'Neill for 17 ½ years, arrived at Belmont late Friday afternoon from California to oversee the workout, and was pleased with the style and ease the multiple graded-stakes winner offered.
"What I like is how easily he did it," Mora said. "It was nice, I'm very pleased. He wasn't even making noise going by. I like how he went past the wire. That's when you know you have a legit horse. I like what I saw."
The afternoon workout is a tactic that O'Neill has used before, notably saddling Reddam Racing's then-undefeated colt Nyquist for a public workout at Santa Anita Park for his final breeze before he won the 2015 Breeders' Cup Juvenile by a half-length.
"We don't school horses like some trainers," said Mora. "If we work a horse prior or between races, or before the first race, we do it like a race, so they think they went through it, but they didn't go through the hassle. They come back to the barn, they've gone through the workout, and it's a whole psychological thing for them."
Unplaced through three starts earlier in his career on dirt, the half-brother to Lookin At Lee was switched to turf, where he broke his maiden in his fifth start at Del Mar. It took a while for the long-striding colt to get to his first Grade 1 start next Saturday.
"This is a late-developing horse," Mora said. "He was just a slow learner. We tried him on dirt, we thought he was just no good on dirt. So Doug put him on the grass and he won. [The owners] talked to Doug, and he said if you want to make it to the Kentucky Derby, let's do it like Animal Kingdom did. Run around synthetic, and try to qualify, and enjoy the Derby.
"Once we didn't get in, the owners brought up the [July 7 Grade 1 Belmont Derby Invitational] on the grass. Doug said, 'What about the Peter Pan?' and the owners said, 'Let's go."
Blended Citizen, who placed third in the El Camino Real Derby in February at Golden Gate Fields, returned to win the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park the following month, before running fifth in the Grade 2 Blue Grass at Keeneland. Blended Citizen has earnings of $406,854, and will be ridden by jockey Kyle Frey, who has been aboard the colt for his last four starts.
"I watched some of those others go, and my stomach's aching a little bit," joked trainer D. Wayne Lukas. "Boy, Tenfold galloped out pretty. I thought he looked terrific. I don't know why I go out there and get a stomach ache, subject myself to that stuff, don't sleep worrying about it. Good thing I don't see them all."
More seriously, he said, "The gray area is we're going to change the game. We're going to change the field, we're going to change the configuration of the racetrack and change the distance. The distance, I think, is the big factor.
"None of us knows," Lukas said of horses handling 1 1/2 miles. "I think Tenfold is going to waltz around there. I think Bravazo will. I think Hofburg will; Vino Rosso will go around there. I think there are horses that have it in their scope. But they've got to do it. You got to go out there and show it to somebody. He [Justify] has to do it, too. They all will run a mile and a half - some a little faster than others."
Commendable in 2000 was the least probable of Lukas' four Belmont Stakes winners, coming into the race with only a maiden victory and no finish in a stakes better than fourth.
But, said Lukas, "That was the one Belmont where I actually felt in my heart that I had the horse who could dictate the race and do what I wanted him to do, and the others would underestimate him."
Lukas said one of the things that makes Justify so formidable is his ability to dictate the pace, forcing others to react to him, though obviously no one will underestimate him.
"He dominates the race," Lukas said. "He'll decide what the first half-mile is going to be, for sure. I think from the start to the quarter pole, I think Justify tells us what is going to go on. I think he's going to do whatever he wants. He's like the gorilla in the room. Where is he going to sit? Wherever he wants.
"After that, it may be a different story. It's a great superfecta, with so many different scenarios. You can make a superfecta bet up and say, 'Whoa, I can't leave that one out.'"
Romans, now Churchill Downs' all-time winningest trainer after clipping Hall of Famer Bill Mott last fall, was third in his 2005 Belmont debut with the maiden Nolan's Cat. He was third again in his second attempt, with First Dude in 2010. Medal Count was third in 2014 and Keen Ice the show horse in 2015, though he subsequently took Saratoga's Travers over Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
"Nolan's Cat was a thrill, for a lot of reasons," said Romans, who trained Nolan's Cat's sire, turf champion Kitten's Joy for Ken Ramsey. "Ken owned the sire, owned the mare, owned the babies. So when the water rose, all the boats rose. That was pretty exciting stuff. This is a side story, but my mother loves [NBC broadcaster] Tom Hammond because when I had the maiden in there, everybody was kind of knocking me. When Nolan's Cat was third, Tom said, 'I guess they'll stop doubting him now.' Ever since then my mother has been in love with Tom Hammond.
"Keen Ice, that was exciting just to be a part of the Triple Crown. When they show American Pharoah's form, they're going to show a lot of Keen Ice behind him and one in front of him."
Romans said he never felt his third-place finisher was better than the horse that won the Belmont that year.
"I thought we had what we had coming, and be happy with the thirds," he said. "Well, I was never happy with it. After you run third, you think, 'Man, I was so close.' Going into it, sometimes you say, 'I'd take third.' But not with this horse. This horse is a Grade 1 winner. We need to win a race."
Free Drop Billy won last fall's Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland. He had a second and two thirds in three starts this year before his 16th-place Kentucky Derby finish. Robby Albarado has the Belmont mount.
Free Drop Billy had a controlled gallop under Juan Segundo. He is scheduled to work Sunday morning at Churchill Downs' 7:30 time slot for Belmont horses.