Saturday’s Belmont Stakes lost two prospective obstacles to Smarty Jones’ Triple Crown bid when Tapit and The Cliff’s Edge dropped out yesterday because of physical ailments.
But Todd Pletcher and Bobby Frankel, the trainers of Purge and Master David, respectively, switched course and indicated they might throw their hats in the ring.
Also, the Chicago-based colt Caiman became a surprise participant in the “Test of the Champion.” Trained by Angel Medina, Caiman is coming off two straight allowance victories at Hawthorne.
Tapit, winner of the Wood Memorial but ninth in the Kentucky Derby, was withdrawn from the Belmont because trainer Michael “The Mad Genius” Dickinson feels the colt “has not fully recovered from the remnants of lung disease.”
Blue Grass winner The Cliff’s Edge, who threw his front shoes finishing fifth in the Derby, has been battling a bruised foot that forced him to scratch from the Preakness. He breezed five furlongs in 1:02.3 yesterday over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga but “got very, very tired after the work,” trainer Nick Zito said.
“We decided not to run. He missed a week of training in Baltimore, so he would have only been 90 percent ready in the Belmont.”
Zito still has two other Belmont hopefuls: Royal Assault and Birdstone, who breezed six furlongs in 1:15.1 yesterday at the Old Spa.
After Purge won last Saturday’s Peter Pan Stakes by 63/4 lengths, Pletcher said he was unlikely to try Smarty Jones again after chasing him home twice in Arkansas.
Yesterday, Pletcher hedged that bet: “I’m probably going to work him Monday and make a decision after that. There is a chance [he’ll run in the Belmont], probably a little better chance now than there was a week ago.”
As for Master David, “I might enter, but that’s about it,” said Frankel, who saddled Empire Maker to win last year’s Belmont. “Something has to happen [read: Smarty Jones scratches] for him to run.”
Smarty Jones walked the shed at Philly Park yesterday after Friday’s seven-furlong breeze. “He came out of the work perfect,” barn foreman Bill Foster said. “He was really on the muscle this morning, bucking and squealing. He’s absolutely 100 percent.”