It's 'Stars & Stripes Day' at Belmont Park this Saturday but the $3.3 million holiday festival is far from a local show and Dermot Weld's Flying Jib has already flown to New York to lead a small-but-select Irish team at American racing's new showpiece event.
Along with Aidan O'Brien's Wonderfully, the Weld-trained star will line up in the $1 million Grade One Belmont Oaks, part of the inaugural 'Stars & Stripes' fixture which also includes the $1.25 Belmont Derby in which the Ballydoyle team will be represented by the Gallinule Stakes winner Adelaide.
It will form part of a hugely busy trans-Atlantic weekend for O’Brien with Geoffrey Chaucer due to run in Sunday’s German Derby in Hamburg and both Verrazano and War Command in contention to run in Saturday afternoon’s Eclipse at Sandown.
However, no trainer has a bigger reputation worldwide for exploiting overseas opportunities than Weld and 24 years after Go And Go supplied him with a historic Belmont Stakes victory, the Curragh maestro is taking aim at another big pot at the track.
“Flying Jib is already in New York. She flew out Sunday and will be back here in Ireland next Sunday so it’s a week away for her. Pat Smullen will ride and she seems to be in good form,” Weld confirmed yesterday.
This season
Flying Jib has run just once so far this season and the Juddmonte-owned filly was impressive when beating Peace Burg in the Athasi Stakes at the Curragh at the start of May. She also holds an entry in the Irish Oaks in just over a fortnight, along with a number of other Weld-trained stars including Tarfasha, who was runner-up at Epsom a month ago.
Tarfasha’s owner Sheikh Hamdan had a one-two at Epsom after Taghrooda’s impressive victory but plans on who will represent him at the Curragh are as yet unclear. “Tarfasha is still in the Irish Oaks but we will wait to see what Sheikh Hamdan wants to do, whether he wants to run both fillies, or just one,” Weld added.
In the shorter term, Adelaide, who finished runner-up in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, will fly the Irish flag in the Belmont Derby, a race that is likely to see the betting topped by Jamie Osborne’s appropriately named UAE Derby winner, Toast Of New York. The horse is already at Belmont and Osborne is to join him tomorrow.
“He did his last bit of work at home. He’s not going to gallop while he’s there, he’ll just canter round the track. Sometimes you lose these races in transit but at the moment it looks like it’s all gone well,” Osborne said yesterday. “You don’t have a horse like him and send him for a million and a quarter race and leave him half-cocked. He’s as fit as a flea.”
From France
Pornichet, third in the Prix du Jockey Club, is being sent from France for Saturday night’s feature, as is the dual-Group Three winner Gailo Chop who has been bought by Australian interests and is now trained by Gai Waterhouse.
On the home front, one of the best maidens in training, the Chesham Stakes runner-up, Toscanini, is at the forefront of Michael Halford’s thoughts about where to run the Godolphin-owned colt next. Prior to Ascot, Toscanini had been runner-up to the subsequent Railway Stakes winner Kool Kompany at Naas and the trainer said yesterday: “Whether we just go for a maiden to get his head in front, or go for a Group race, we’ll just have to wait and see.”
