Belmont Stakes Contender News & Notes: May 22, 2017

  • Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing exited the race in good order and was vanned back to Chad Brown’s Belmont Park barn following his victory.
  • Brown said that he would wait a week to evaluate his Preakness champ before deciding whether or not to run the colt in the June 10 Grade 1 Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.
  • Preakness runner-up Classic Empire was slated to van back to Churchill Downs on the evening of May 20 and is probable to head to New York for the final leg of the Triple Crown.
  • Trainer Mark Casse said he would likely remove Classic Empire’s blinkers for the Belmont Stakes because he believes wearing them may have prevented the colt from seeing Cloud Computing’s Preakness challenge until it was too late to respond.
  • Preakness third-place finisher Senior Investment shipped to New York on May 20 and will have two workouts before the Belmont Stakes.
  • Lookin At Lee, fourth in the Preakness after finishing second in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, is also headed to the Belmont Stakes and will have one work a week prior to the race.
  • Trainer Antonio Sano said Gunnevera bled during his fifth-place Preakness effort and will be vanned back to his Gulfstream Park West stable to be freshened for a summer campaign in Saratoga.
  • Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable and George J. Kerr’s Multiplier was vanned back to Keeneland  following his sixth-place finish in the Preakness but is under consideration for the final jewel in the Triple Crown.
  • Conquest Mo Money, seventh in the Preakness, is possible for the Belmont Stakes and was to be shipped to the barn of trainer Tres Abbott at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland on May 20.
  • Miguel Hernandez, who has two dozen horses at Prairie Meadows in Iowa, will remain the trainer of Conquest Mo Money.
  • Kentucky Derby champion Always Dreaming, who dueled with Classic Empire early in the Preakness before fading to eighth, exited the race fine and was vanned to Todd Pletcher’s Belmont Park barn to await a decision on the Belmont Stakes.
  • Preakness ninth-place finisher Hence was to return to Churchill Downs with no particular target for his next race.
  • Calumet Farm’s California-based Term of Art, who faded from contention midway in the backstretch to finish 10th in the Preakness, left his corner stall at Pimlico on the morning of May 20 to begin a cross-country journey home.
  • Trainer Doug O’Neill said Term of Art will be checked to ensure the colt has no physical issues before plans are made for this next start.
  • Tapwrit, sixth in the Kentucky Derby, is expected to represent Pletcher’s stable in the Belmont Stakes.
  • Patch, Pletcher’s popular one-eyed charge, remains possible for the Belmont Stakes, but has yet to return to the work tab off his 14th-place finish in the Run for the Roses
  • Federico Tesio Stakes victor Twisted Tom is possible for the Belmont Stakes but will have to be supplemented for $75,000 since he is not a Triple Crown nominee.
  • True Timber, third in the LARC Sir Barton Stakes on the Preakness undercard, is a possible Belmont Stakes starter.
  • Take Your Guns, who was being considered for the Belmont Stakes, will get the summer off to recover from an injury suffered in his fourth-place run in the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes on May 13.
  • Multiple graded stakes placed No Dozing is being pointed to the Woody Stephens Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard.