Rousing Sermon might run in the Belmont Stakes
Owned and bred by Larry and Marianne Williams, Rousing Sermon could be back for the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on 9 June, 2012, says trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
Finished 8 ¾ lengths in eighth adrift of the winner, I’ll Have Another, in the Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on 5 May, 2012, Rousing Sermon hasn’t worked since then, and now he is expected to get back on the work tab by the end of this weekend.
Bred in California, Rousing Sermon is one of those colts, who looked promising in his juvenile season, but fell away performance wise, when it mattered the most.
Never finished worse than third in the whole of 2011, Rousing Sermon raced six times as a juvenile and got off to a perfect start in his debut race, when he went five furlongs over the Hollywood Park’s cushion track on 5 June, 2011, in his maiden race.
Placed in his next two starts, as his finished in third place back to back in the Graduation Stakes and I’m Smokin Stakes respectively, as both starts came over the Del Mar’s synthetic surface.
The 3-year-old Lucky Pulpit colt then went on to win in the California Juvenile Cup at Santa Anita Park on dirt for the first time, and got stretched out to 1 1/16 miles for the first time as well.
Than his last two starts he managed a second place in either of them, starting from the Real Quiet Stakes over the Hollywood Park’s cushion track, and at the same venue finished second in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity Stakes.
However, it all turned around with the step up in class, as Rousing Sermon finished third in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes and fifth in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes.
In the business end of the Derby trail, Rousing Sermon turned in a third place finish in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said that Rousing Sermon’s inclusion in the Belmont Stakes will depend on how he works at Betfair Hollywood Park after this weekend and majorly on the outcome of the Preakness Stakes this Saturday.
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