Green Lantern Stables’ A. P. Indian, a perfect five-for-five this season, will seek his second “Win and You’re In” berth to the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Sprint (gr. I) when he faces seven rivals in Belmont Park’s Vosburgh Stakes (gr. I).
The six-furlong sprint goes as race 9 with an approximate post of 5:11 p.m. EDT. All runners carry 124 pounds.
The 6-year-old gelding earned his first Breeders’ Cup berth with his 2 1/2-length win in Saratoga Race Course’s seven-furlong Priority One Jets Forego Stakes (gr. I) on Travers Stakes (gr. I) day. That score was added to earlier wins on the New York Racing Association circuit in the Alfred G. Vanderbilt Stakes (gr. I) and Belmont Sprint Championship Stakes (gr. III).
Trainer Arnold Delacour has kept his runner sharp with a string of bullet works at his base at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland.
Oddly enough the Vosburgh, a key prep for the Breeders’ Cup, hasn’t produced the winner since Artax in 1999.
A. P. Indian’s key challenger will likely be Gary Hartunian and Ivan Rodriguez’s X Y Jet, who will make his first start since a hard-luck neck defeat in the Gulf News Dubai Golden Shaheen (UAE-I) at Meydan. Prior to the Middle East trip, the son of Kantharos had a five-race win streak that included blistering displays of early foot in Gulfstream Park’s Mr. Prospector Stakes (gr. III), Sunshine Millions Sprint, and Gulfstream Park Sprint Stakes (gr. III). He’ll break just to A. P. Indian’s outside in post 5.
Among those looking to advance their case and make the Breeders’ Cup are Charlton Baker’s Joking, a 7-year-old Distorted Humor gelding, who has recovered from an injured splint bone. This summer Joking won the True North Stakes (gr. II) on the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) day undercard and has a 5-3-0 mark in eight starts over Big Sandy.
Third behind Joking in the True North and a game second behind A. P. Indian in the Vanderbilt was Jerry Durant’s Holy Boss. Holy Boss has not found the winner’s circle since putting together a four-race streak in the spring and summer of 2015 but he has yet to be worse than fifth in seven graded stakes since then, including last year’s Breeders’ Cup.
Of the rest of the field, Stallwalkin' Dude seems to be the horse on the improve. Returning from a brief summer break for trainer David Jacobson, the 6-year-old gelding has put up Equibase Speed Figures of 93, 110, and 112 and was a solid third in A. P. Indian’s Forego.
Belmont Park, Saturday, October 01, 2016, Race 9Entries: Vosburgh S. (G1)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Weekend Hideaway (NY) Luis Saez 124 Philip M. Serpe 20/1 2 2Holy Boss (KY) John R. Velazquez 124 Steven M. Asmussen 4/1 3 3Joking (KY) Manuel Franco 124 Charlton Baker 8/1 4 4Green Gratto (NJ) Kendrick Carmouche 124 Gaston Grant 30/1 5 5A. P. Indian (KY) Joe Bravo 124 Arnaud Delacour 1/1 6 6X Y Jet (FL) Emisael Jaramillo 124 Jorge Navarro 7/2 7 7Stallwalkin' Dude (FL) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 124 David Jacobson 8/1 8 8Dannie's Deceiver (KY) Jose L. Ortiz 124 David A. Cannizzo 20/1
