Chancen, Wierker, Trackside Chatter, An Ob Tapit Trice Forte erofhuelen

The grand Belmont Stakes weekend has begun, and with the 7 p.m. June 10 post time for the $1.5 million beast of the Triple Crown, the Belmont, marching ever closer, it’s time to put the lens on how some of the favored and less favored contenders have really been doing, at Belmont and elsewhere. The Canadian wildfires ratcheted down New York’s air quality enough to prevent maintenance works by any horses at Belmont on Thursday, but hopefully Long Island’s occasionally brisk sea breezes will get the better of the ruddy haze in the next hours so that the weekend’s racing can proceed.

First, since the windows are open at Belmont, here’s a refresher on the odds:

(Post Positioun, Päerd, Jockey, Moien Linn)

1. Tapit Shoes, Jose Ortiz, 20-1

2. Tapit Trice, Luis Saez, 3-1

3. Arcangelo, Javier Castellano, 8-1

4. National Schatz, John R. Velasquez, 5-1

5. Il Miracolo, Marcos Meneses, 30-1

6. Forte, Irad Ortiz Jr., 5-2

7. Hit Show, Manuel Franco, 10-1

8. Engel vum Räich, Flavien Prat, 7-2

9. Red Route One, Joel Rosario, 15-1

(Quell: NYRA, 6/6/2023)

Pletcher had Irad Ortiz gallop Tapit Trice what has been described as a ‘very strong’ mile-and-a-half on June 6, and he turned in a fine time, according to the clockers, in a May 26 work over five furlongs at 1:00.20, but it is really more his alacrity and bounce that has the Belmont chattering class impressed. He’s showing great bit for the distance, for one main thing, and Pletcher has opted not to change much, simply to test him once and again. It’s working fabulously. The impression trackside is that Forte is going to have a job of work taking him down, not the other way around.

And that, or something close to it, can be said to be in Forte’s connections’ minds, since as we know the works for Forte have been more ‘instructive,’ in the sense of being just that much more testing. The difficulty for the athlete and his team, including the redoubtable Pletcher, is that Forte has had no races since his very nice Florida Derby win on April 1, pictured above. That he would have had a race, and arguably, for him, the perfect and perfectly-timed one in the Preakness from which he was scratched, is just his cross to bear. To restate it, Forte’s “rust” is becoming an issue. In the Belmont Stakes, no athlete needs any other “issue” or hurdle to overcome except to deal with the beast of the track itself.