Belmont Stakes 2011 - Prime Cut distance test
The Belmont Stakes will be Prime Cut’s sixth start of 2011. He is not considered as a serious contender for the Belmont Stakes as his previous track record indicates that he will not be much of a threat for the favourites.
Prime Cut finished third in the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes, and has 1 win, 2 runners-up, and 2 third place positions to show for this year.
Prime Cut is now preparing for the Belmont Stakes at Churchill Downs before he heads off to New York on June 11, 2011. The three-year old son of Bernstein made a strong five furlong run on June 6 and worked with Mine Train, 4-year old stable mate and it
took him 1 minute 1 second to cover the distance over a fast track.
Prime Cut was working with exercise rider Dane Noel, and gave stable mate Mine Train a head start of two lengths before breaking and finished on even terms with a split time of 25 seconds and 37 seconds, all in all Prime Cut galloped 6 furlongs in a time
of 1 minute 14 seconds.
Trainer Neil Howard, who was reluctant to make a decision in the beginning about entering Prime Cut in the Belmont Stakes, said that Prime Cut might not be a likely Belmont runner.
It’s understandable where Neil Howard is coming from because his pedigree is of a mile and he was not up for the nine furlongs at the Peter Pan Stakes and the distance at the Belmont Stakes might be asking a little too much from him.
He is a talented colt with some consistency and stamina as well but his tactical speed is yet to be seen. Belmont Stakes will obviously be a big test for him especially after his inclusion is announced.
Howard said:
We made the decision the other day that we’d go ahead and run, pending everything going good through this week. He’s doing good. We don’t feel like we’ve pushed or reached to much with him, and he’s got a nice prep over Belmont. So we kind of left it that
we’d go ahead if everything went well this morning, and it did”.
Prime Cut’s fastest 1 mile 70 yard race win came on 26 March over the highly under-rated Bind and many followed after that in the 2010-2011 Fair ground meet.
But the marathon distance at the Belmont Stakes will be a good experience for both horse and trainer and an opportunity to find out the true potential of Prime Cut.
The Belmont Stakes could prove to be a crucial run, especially when he will be running on grass tracks later this summer, which some people think, that Prime Cut might do well on.
Tags: