Top-weighted Wanderin Boy could prove dangerous on the front end of the $250,000 Brooklyn Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. II), where he takes on six rivals in the 1 1/8-mile dirt test at Belmont Park Saturday.
The son of
Seeking the Gold, owned by Arthur Hancock and trained by Nick Zito, won a classified allowance race gate to wire over a sealed track at muddy Belmont Park June 25. He flew away on the front end en route to a 5 1/4-length triumph in the nine-furlong Ben Ali (gr. III) at Keeneland in April.
Wanderin Boy carries 117 pounds and will be ridden by Javier Castellano.
The slumping Funny Cide and the unproven Take the Bluff figure to provide any pace opposition to Wanderin Boy, who scratched from Saratoga's Whitney (gr. I).
Good Reward, a grade I winner on the Belmont turf, looks for his first graded stakes win on the main track. He comes off a second-pace finish behind Lava Man in the 1 1/4-mile Pacific Classic (gr. I) Aug. 20 and is winless in four graded stakes events on the dirt for trainer Shug McGaughey. Good Reward, who cuts back to one turn Saturday, captured the 2005 Manhattan Handicap (gr. IT).
Dual Classsic winner Funny Cide returns just two weeks after finishing eighth in Saratoga's Woodward (gr. I). Cornelio Velasquez rides the Barclay Tagg-trained gelding for the first time.
Chilean-bred We Can Seek is coming off a fourth-place finish behind Invasor in the Whitney (gr. I).
The Brooklyn has been run during Belmont's spring-summer meeting. It was moved on the schedule to replace the Woodward, which moved from Belmont to Saratoga this year.
$150,000 Brooklyn Breeders' Cup (gr. II, Race 9, 5:12 p.m.), 3 & Up, 1 1/8 MilesPP. Horse, Weight, Jockey
1. Good Reward (KY), 115, Garrett K. Gomez
2. Funny Cide (NY), 115, Cornelio H. Velasquez
3. Awesome Twist (KY), 114, Edgar S. Prado
4. Take the Bluff (KY), 112, John R. Velazquez
5. Reverberate (KY), 112, Jose A. Santos
6. We Can Seek (CHI), 114, Eibar Coa
7. Wanderin Boy (KY), 117, Javier Castellano
