Check The Label blooms in the Garden City Stakes
Check The Label made it four wins in succession and a first at Grade One level with a victory the Garden City Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Garden City drew a field of seven – with No Explaining a late scratch – and Queen of the Creek set some solid fractions through the first two furlongs as Ramon Dominguez chose to sit off the pace at the back of the field on Check The Label.
Dominguez made his move at the half-mile mark but could not find a rail-run on the back stretch and had to come three wide on the home turn as Check The Label challenged Persuading and Gitchee Goomie and then held the late charge of Snow Top Mountain in the last 50 yards, with Gitchee Goomie keeping on for third.
“On soft ground like this, it’s very difficult to make up that kind of ground and she just overcame all the trouble," Dominguez said. "She showed that she’s a nice filly. She gave me a great kick; really, it’s hard to appreciate how much I had to take away from her. For any horse it would have been a perfect excuse not to finish up after that because of all the run that I took away from her, but she was there for me.”
Check The Label has now booked her place in Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs in November, although trainer Graham Motion has not decided if the filly will run and is thinking in terms of the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland on October 16th beforehand.
Lookin At Lucky (pictured) is likely to have his prep run for the Classic in the Grade Two Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park on October 2nd according to trainer Bob Baffert.
Lookin At Lucky was the champion two-year-old who got a horror trip when sixth in the Kentucky Derby. Since then he has established himself as the best three-year-old colt in America by winning both the Preakness and Haskell Invitational Stakes. After the Haskell, Lookin At Lucky was put on the sidelines with a temperature and only returned to proper work at Del Mar last week.
Referring to the Indiana Derby Baffert told the Daily Racing Form: “As long as everything goes smooth between now and then, that’s where I’m pointing him. Right now everything looks good. He worked nice the other day.”
The race gives Baffert with five weeks to prepare the colt for the Classic and it is a weekend which is likely to prove pivotal in terms of which horses will make the starting for the $5million race on November 6th.
Aside from the Indiana Derby there is the Grade One Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont, where Blame, the winner of the Whitney Handicap, could clash with Afleet Express and Fly Down, first and second in the Travers Stakes last month. On the same day Zenyatta is expected to have her final run before she defends her Classic title in the Grade One Lady’s Secret Stakes at Del Mar.
The mare, still unbeaten in 18 career runs, continued her preparation for the Lady’s Secret Stakes when she worked six furlongs at Hollywood Park. The Lady’s Secret, which Zenyatta has won twice when it was run at Santa Anita, will be run during the first weekend of the Oak Tree at Hollywood Park fixture.
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