Gilchrist Seeking Out Foes for Lost in the Fog

With the defection of Bellamy Road from the Aug. 27 King's Bishop Stakes (gr. I) to run instead in the $1-million Travers (gr. I), Lost in the Fog once again looks to have a race at his mercy, something trainer Greg Gilchrist has mixed feelings about.

Bellamy Road's trainer Nick Zito stated Tuesday that the only way he would consider running his colt in the King's Bishop was if Lost in the Fog were not in the race. With so many top-class 3-year-old sprinters pulling disappearing acts every time they are confronted by the presence of Lost in the Fog, it seems as if Gilchrist will not get a chance to see his colt under fire against the best horses in the country until the TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) Oct. 29.

"We have always announced where we are going, and we announce it way ahead of time," Gilchrist said Tuesday on a national teleconference. "We always show up, and if the others don't that's completely out of our control. There must be a reason why they're not coming; and whatever those reasons are is up to them. That's certainly their business. I'm sure there will be day when we're all going to meet, and we will find out who is the best. There's not much else we can really do except nominate, enter, and be there on race day."

Asked how he could put Harry Aleo's son of Lost Soldier Lost in the picture for an Eclipse award as champion 3-year-old, Gilchrist couldn't come up with a definitive answer.

"Maybe we can get together a match race with somebody or something like that. I really don't know how you prove who is the best horse? All I'm doing is trying to give my horse the best chance to win and put him in spots where I think he can. There's just not much more we can do. If the horse did win out the rest of the year, ending with the Breeders' Cup, I think it would be very hard to bypass a horse that would be 10-for-10."

As for Bellamy Road's defection, Gilchrist said, "If he would have outrun him it certainly would have boosted his reputation, but I'm not going to say I'm sad that he's not going in the race. I'm not the kind of guy who wants to go find the toughest race that I can.

"It wouldn't make any difference to me. I would have trained him for the race the same way whether Bellamy road was in there or not."