HAYNESFIELD 4 FOR 5 AT BELMONT

Reprinted from DRF, by David Grening

ELMONT, N.Y. – If you like a quality longshot with speed who could potentially get loose on the lead on a track he loves, Haynesfield could be for you in Saturday’s $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

In a race that includes Grade 1 winners Blame and Rail Trip and the solid 3-year-old Fly Down, Haynesfield should offer some value in the Gold Cup, one of five Grade 1 races on Saturday’s 11-race card at Belmont Park that begins at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

Blame, who won the Whitney at Saratoga for his fifth consecutive graded stakes win, drew post 2 and was installed as the 8-5 favorite for the Gold Cup by New York Racing Association oddsmaker Eric Donovan. Rail Trip, who will be making his first start on dirt and first for trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., drew post 8 and was made the 5-2 second choice. The Gold Cup is run at 1 1/4 miles.

Haynesfield, 8-1 on the morning-line, is 4 for 5 at Belmont with his lone loss coming by a head in a sprint stakes coming off a seven-month layoff. Haynesfield, who won the Grade 2 Suburban at 1 1/8 miles here in July, is coming off a fourth-place finish to Blame in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga. But Haynesfield broke through the gate prior to the official start of the race, and it definitely had an impact on him.

“I think his last race has to be completely thrown out,” said Ramon Dominguez, the regular rider of Haynesfield. “You can’t take anything away from those horses, they’re the best in the country, but the gate incident didn’t help. When he came out of the gate he was kind of shaking his head; he really hit the gate hard and we know that takes a lot out of a horse.”

With the possible exception of Rail Trip, Haynesfield looks like the horse with the most early speed in the race. Haynesfield will break from post 6.

Rail Trip, who has not run since finishing second in the Hollywood Gold Cup in July, worked four furlongs in 49.38 seconds Wednesday morning at Aqueduct. Dutrow said that Rail Trip would run with an aluminum pad over the gelding’s right front foot to protect an issue with the frog, or bottom part, of his foot that first surfaced at Saratoga.

“If there were any question marks in our minds I wouldn’t even think about running the horse,” Dutrow said.

The rest of the Gold Cup field consists of Mythical Power, Tranquil Manner, Dry Martini, and Hold Me Back.