Team Valor Stable's Oh So Awesome breezed seven furlongs on Belmont Park's fast main track Thursday morning in 1:27 4/5 as he prepared for the 138th running of the Belmont Stakes on June 10."It wasn't spectacular, he's not that kind of horse," said trainer Jimmy Jerkens. "But he did just about what I expected him to do."The Belmont will be only Oh So Awesome's second start for the trainer. Previously trained in France by Jean-Claude Rouget, the 3-year-old son of 1998 Horse of the Year Awesome Again impressed Jerkens when he was a closing third in the slop at Belmont on May 19 at 1 1/16 miles."I thought his last race was a good one, and I think he can move forward off it," Jerkens said. "I mean, I think that Todd Pletcher has the two most accomplished horses in the field (Bluegrass Cat and Sunriver), but other than that, I think it is pretty wide open."While Jerkens has yet to see video of Oh So Awesome's races in France, he has noted that the horse has shown speed in the past and is not just a closer."All I know is that Team Valor brought this horse over to run in the Belmont," Jerkens said. "And it seems that horses that win this race have to have some speed, even though it is a mile and a half."
Meanwhile, at the Oklahoma Training Track in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito sent out Kinsman Stable's Belmont hopeful, Hemingway's Key, for a five-furlong breeze of 1:01 1/5. A distant third in the Preakness (gr. I), the Notebook colt is on a five-race losing streak.
