"I needed to get back to Monmouth Park and take care of some things, so I wanted to see him and then beat the traffic to get back," Breen said. "He looked good. We were the first ones on the track going the right way, so it was kind of like his own track.

"He probably looked around a little more than a horse would if there was company or something like that, but that's him. I think most horses have a tendency to look around a little bit when there's not much going on. I was very happy with what I saw."

Most recently third, beaten a half-length, in the Canonero II at Pimlico Race Course on May 5, My Adonis has never raced at Belmont, but is no stranger to New York. He was second to 2011 juvenile male champion Hansen in the Grade 3 Gotham on March 3, and seventh of eight in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 7, both at Aqueduct.

Unflappable as always, Lukas, 76, who runs Optimizer on Saturday in the Belmont Stakes, emerged from his brief hospital stay for stitches and appeared talkative and in good spirits at the post position draw on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, when the black eye showed up, he held court at his temporary base in trainer John Hertler's barn, talking about the finer points of his betting strategy.

At the Kentucky Derby, Lukas had a seven-horse superfecta box but said a handicapper talked him out of using Went the Day Well in favor of Take Charge Indy. The bet paid $96,000. At the Breeders' Cup, Lukas said he likes to put in all his superfecta bets before the first race, "and then sit there and watch them like the lottery."

Asked about the Belmont, Lukas said his Optimizer is the only longshot (20-1) in the field of 12 he sees sneaking into the big picture.

"The horses everybody talks about are going to run the table," Lukas said. "The five or six that dropped in, I don't see them doing anything. I think we've got a chance to be in the superfecta. I think we can upset them."

Lukas said his betting strategy is predicated on one rule: "Get ahead early."

"The horse is a monster," he said. "He's never been outworked in the morning or the afternoon."

Unstoppable U's reluctance to change leads had given McPeek pause, but the trainer said the gray son of Exchange Rate is finally learning his lesson.

"Two works ago, he was really unprofessional," he said. "He worked from the five-eighths pole all the way to the wire on the left lead and still went :59. So the talent's there, but he hasn't figured out, 'OK, I need to change to my right lead when we turn for home,' and we work really hard trying to get him to do it."

Changing leads has been the focus of the horse's works since then.