Haynesfield will try to get his season back on track with a win in the Empire Classic at Belmont Park
The Turtle Bird Stable’s 5-year-old horse, Haynesfield, has entered the Empire Classic at Belmont Park on 22 October, 2011, where the Steve Asmussen trained New York bred will headline the 8 field caste and take on another contender for the title Inherit the Gold.
The 36th running of the $200,000 McMahon Adena Empire Classic is the centre piece of the New York showcase day at Belmont Park.
The son of Speightstown, out of Nothing Special by Tejabo, Haynesfield won the 2009 edition of the Empire Classic under jockey Ramon Dominguez.
Haynesfield covered the 1 1/8 mile distance then, in 1 minute and 50.76 seconds on dirt, and in the process defeated Ruffino and Undocumented who finished second and third, respectively.
The 5-year-old Haynesfield is coming off a fifth place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap (Met Mile) on 30 May, 2011, at Belmont Park under jockey Ramon Dominguez.
Haynesfield was up against the likes of Tizway, Caixa Eletronica and Rodman, and in a star studded field he couldn’t manage to run down any of them as finished way behind the winner Tizway, who covered the 1 mile distance in 1 minute and 32.90 seconds.
The 2009 Empire Classic winner has had 2 starts in the 2011 season so far, and prior to the Met Mile, he participated in the Grade 3 Westchester Stakes.
Held at Belmont Park on 30 April, 2011, Haynesfield under Ramon Dominguez again, couldn’t keep up with the runners and weakened to finish 4th on the day while Caixa Eletronica finished first followed by Convocation and Schoolyard Dreams to finish the top 3 order.
In the year 2010, Haynesfield had a pretty impressive record of 3 wins and a single second place finish out of six starts.
He won the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap at Belmont Park over at 1 1/8 miles, and completed the distance in 1 minute and 48.52 seconds.
His next major race of the 2010 season came in November last year when he finsihed second in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct race course while Jersey Town won the race with the winning time of 1 minute and 34.43 seconds.
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