Belmont Stakes: Velazquez not sure of start for Brooklyn Strong

Brooklyn Strong’s less-than-auspicious workout on Saturday at Parx Racing has trainer Daniel Velazquez re-thinking plans to run the New York-bred gelding in the Belmont Stakes.

The son of Wicked Strong, a $5,000 purchase for owner Mark Schwartz, traveled five furlongs in a pedestrian 1:02.25 seconds with assistant trainer Maria Remedio aboard. The one-paced drill ranked 21st of 26 horses at the distance and raised alarms for Velazquez.

[Related – Belmont Stakes field update: 14 possible starters]

“I told Mark (Saturday), this is a young 3-year-old gelding. The Belmont is a race, obviously, that we would love to target and love to get there,” the conditioner said. “But at the end of the day, this is a young horse with plenty of races on the horizon.

“If we miss this, it’s not like it’s the be all and end all. He’s a talented little horse. I don’t want to take that away from him. I don’t want to break his heart. That could happen. I’ve seen that happen. I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.”

Velazquez is not so sure that he and Schwartz did the right thing when they took a last-minute opportunity to compete in the Kentucky Derby. The connections were formally invited by Churchill Downs officials the Sunday before the race. The horse worked five furlongs in 1:00.92 the following day at Parx and was being vanned from Bensalem, Pa., to Louisville by nightfall. He galloped beneath the twin spires for only two mornings.

It all added up to a 15th place finish for Brooklyn Strong and Umberto Rispoli, who accepted the mount after being dropped from Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World in favor of Joel Rosario.

Velazquez calls the circumstances that surrounded the Derby “crazy.” They continued a season in which nothing has gone right since Brooklyn Strong closed his 2-year-old campaign with a hard-fought decision in the Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct to thrust himself onto the Derby trail.

The combination of illness and poor track conditions at Parx kept the gelding from making his sophomore debut until he finished a disappointing fifth in the April 3 Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct. The Preakness became the goal until the list of potential Derby starters began to dwindle at a rapid pace.

“I almost wish in retrospect that it hadn’t happened because we had the Preakness targeted,” Velazquez said. “I would have gone there with a fresh horse and ready, without all the chaos.”

He does not think fans saw the horse at his best in the Derby. “I definitely feel we left things on the table,” he said.

The question now becomes how to best pick up the pieces. Velazquez is concerned that the first drill ahead of the mile-and-a-half Belmont might have signaled a horse going in the wrong direction.

“I wasn’t exactly happy with the work,” he said. “I know the track was really cuppy and deep. Most of the works on the day were slow. It wasn’t just him.”

Other horses are not gearing up for the last leg of the Triple Crown, however.

Velazquez will scrutinize Brooklyn Strong’s body language this week. He will use a five-furlong work scheduled for next Saturday at Parx to provide the final piece of evidence before a decision is made about the arduous Belmont.

“I want to make sure he’s mentally there,” Velazquez said.