Haskell Features Cream of Triple Crown Runners’ Crop

The cream of the 3-year-old crop that won or finished second in at least one of the Triple Crown legs collide on Sunday in the $1 million Haskell Invitational.

In addition, three runners have six Grade 1 triumphs to their credit. Preakness champ Lookin at Lucky has accounted for three of them. His trainer Bob Baffert also has the number 4 in mind – he saddled the winner of Monmouth Park’s premier race three times in the 21st Century.

Baffert can’t hide his excitement about his colt’s chances in the 43rd renewal. “He’s such a gritty little horse and tries so hard,” said the conditioner, according to BloodHorse.com. “He’s always shown me signs of greatness, but he’s had such bad luck in so many major races his name has really come back to plague him. But he looks fantastic now and is really in the zone.

“He had missed one week with a slight fever and has been on a tight schedule, but he looks like he’s caught up and is doing real good right now. He’s happy, he worked really well yesterday and came out of it great.”

The son of Smart Strike on Monday posted a bullet 58.60 seconds for five furlongs out of four-dozen-plus horses working at Del Mar.

“I’ve always done well there,” Baffert explained, especially in the Haskell. His Forestry finished third in 1999 while Captain Steve was the runner-up in 2000. He won with Point Given in ’01, War Emblem in ’02 and Roman Ruler in ’05.

“Monmouth is one of my favorite tracks,” he added. “The fans really get into it. All I know is he looks great and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Four of his challengers have scored three times in their career, including Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, who hasn’t raced since running eighth in the Preakness. On Monday, the son of Maria’s Mon breezed five furlongs in 1:00.77 at Saratoga, the 12th fastest over the main track.

His trainer Todd Pletcher is going for his third Haskell victory in five years: Bluegrass Cat won in ’06 followed by Any Given Saturday in ‘’07.

Other contenders include Ice Box, the Belmont runner-up, and First Dude, second in the Preakness and third in the Belmont.

“You really can’t sleep on the other runners,” warned Paul Grimm, editor of Oceanport Racing Report (http://oceanportracingreport.com). “Trappe Shot, Uptowncharleybrown and Afleet Again have all either run or trained at Monmouth.”

Afleet Again hit the board twice in his past two stakes outings at Monmouth, finishing second in the Pegasus last month. The others have trained at the track. Trappe Shot took three consecutive allowance races, but has only sprinted. Uptowncharleybrown ran third in two of his past four stakes’ and finished out of the money in the Belmont.

“Regardless of who runs there are some things this year that need to be mentioned about handicapping this event,” Grimm said. “First, there’s the main track. You will see that the times are slower. Some even speculated that dirt has been added in the stretch, more or less water has been debated as the reason while there have been fewer races this year.

“Zito says horses from off the pace seem to be running better, hence his decision to run Ice Box. This is true and it seems that it can even be more pronounced in the claiming ranks. Then there’s the weather.”

The Northeast has just endured the worst heat wave in years. “It has been brutally hot at the Jersey Shore,” Grimm pointed out Monday. “I have lived here my entire life and can’t remember a July like the one we’re struggling through. It’s like two months of August.”

Sunday’s forecast for Oceanport calls for much cooler temperatures than the recent upper 90s, plus a chance of showers. The high is expected to be around July’s usual maximum average of 82.60 degrees.

Horse Racing betting odds at WagerWeb Racebook.

Bet on Sports at Bodog Sportsbook and cash in on your share of huge bonuses!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Subscribe to comments You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Post Tags:

Browse Timeline