Pletcher loaded with contenders for Belmont Stakes Racing Festival

Trainer Todd Pletcher reported Saturday morning that his two Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes contenders, Destin and Stradivari, each jogged one mile on the training track and stood at the starting gate.

"Both seemed energetic and enthusiastic [in their jogs] and stood well at the gate," Pletcher said.

As is Pletcher's modus operandi during major racing events, the trainer will be well represented during the three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. On June 11 alone, the day of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Belmont Stakes, the number and quality of his intended stakes starters is impressive.

An unprecedented winner of seven Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer, Pletcher has confirmed three horses to run in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap: Anchor Down (Jose Ortiz to ride); Blofeld (John Velazquez); and Stanford (Javier Castellano).

Anchor Down, a son of Tapit, is coming off a powerful 6 3/4-length victory in the local prep for the Met Mile, the Grade 3 Westchester. That front-running victory on a muddy and sealed surface marked Anchor Down's first visit to the winner's circle since July 2015. In between, the 5-year-old ridgling lost seven starts.

"I think he trained as good going into his last race, and coming out of it, as he has at any point in his career," Pletcher remarked. "Maybe he is finding himself."

Stanford, a 4-year-old son of Malibu Moon, enters the Met Mile, a "Win and You're In" designated race for the Breeders' Cup Mile, on the heels of a two-length win in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic. His last two starts - the other being a second in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap behind stablemate Blofeld - earned Stanford triple digit Beyer Speed Figures. 

"I think he's a better 4-year-old than he was a 3-year-old, but he was on the verge of being a really good 3-year-old as well, as evidenced by just missing in a couple spots, like the Louisiana Derby," Pletcher said. "Physically he is a stronger and more developed horse from three to four."

Blofeld, a son of Quality Road, Pletcher's 2010 Met Mile winner, followed his victory in the Gulfstream Park Handicap, a mile race, with a fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap at a mile and an eighth. 

"Hopefully he can repeat his Gulfstream Park Handicap performance," Pletcher said. "He likes the mile, but I think eventually he will prove he will be able to handle more distance. He was stopped on the first turn of the Oaklawn Handicap and [John Velazquez] said the horse didn't like being held-up when he had to be wrestled back."

In the Grade 1, $1 million Ogden Phipps, a "Win and You're In" for the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff, Pletcher, who seeks his fourth victory in the race, plans on running Curalina (Velazquez) and Stopchargingmaria (Castellano). 

Stopchargingmaria, the winner of the 2015 Breeders' Cup Distaff, made her 2016 debut in the Grade 1 Madison at Keeneland April 9. That day the 5-year-old was beaten just a neck in her first start since the October 30 Distaff. Last year, Stopchargingmaria used the Madison to launch her 4-year-old campaign and finished second. The daughter of Tale of the Cat was being prepared to run in last year's Ogden Phipps when she spiked a fever the week of the race and therefore was not entered.

"She's training with as much enthusiasm as she did last year," Pletcher said. "[The Madison] was a great race. It was a winning-type of race. We purposely gave her only one start before [the Ogden Phipps] because she runs well fresh."