Mojovation leads compact field in Belmont's Futurity Stakes

The 127th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity, carded as Race 8 on Saturday, October 14 at Belmont Park, will feature a compact but competitive field of six juvenile sprinters.

Zayat Stable's Mojovation will lead the six-furlong charge as he looks to rebound from an off-the-board finish in the Grade 1 Hopeful for Todd Pletcher.

Mojovation, by Quality Road, graduated in his July 29 unveiling in front running fashion at six furlongs at Saratoga to earn a field-high Beyer Speed Figure of 86. He made the leap into stakes company in the Hopeful on September 4 at the Spa, contested over a good main track at seven furlongs, where he tired to a seventh-place finish. Mojovation will be ridden by Velazquez from post 4.

Also on tap for the Futurity are Woodford Racing's Engage, making his graded stakes debut following a half-length maiden win on September 4 at Saratoga for Brown; Group 2-placed Happy Like a Fool, returning stateside after two stakes bids in Great Britain for trainer Wesley Ward; Arlington Washington Futurity winner Barry Lee, making his first New York start since finishing eighth in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special for the Horacio DePaz barn; first-time-out maiden winner Red Peril for trainer Rohan Crichton; and LC Racing's Smooth B, winner of an optional claiming race on September 29 and a supplemental nominee for the Futurity from the barn of Robert Reid, Jr.