Brooklyn Strong, winning last year’ Sleepy Hollow at Belmont Park, worked Saturday at Parx for possible start in the June 4 Belmont Stakes. Janet Garaguso/NYRA Photo.
By Paul Halloran
Three weeks removed from a rough-trip 15th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Brooklyn Strong returned to the work tab Saturday at Parx Racing.
A New York-bred gelding by Wicked Strong out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Riviera Chic, Brooklyn Strong was credited with a 5-furlong work in a moderate 1:02.25 under exercise rider Maria Remedio-Adorno. While there were only five slower works among the 26 at the distance, only six horses worked in under 1:01 over a track described by trainer Danny Velazquez as “deep and cuppy.”
Velazquez had his horse going 6 furlongs in 1:15.95, with splits of :37.37 and :49.80.
“It wasn’t his best work, but the track was a bit slow,” said Velazquez, who plans to work Brooklyn Strong again next Saturday, after which he will make a final decision on whether to run in the $1.5 million Belmont Stakes June 5.
“I’ll walk him tomorrow and Monday and he’ll train Tuesday through Friday,” Velazquez said. “Next Saturday we’ll definitely know if we are going or not.”
“We’ll see what happens next Saturday,” owner Mark Schwartz said. “Danny didn’t love the work, but he did say the track was slow. It’s his call.”
Velazquez and Schwartz are considering the Derby a complete throw-out, an opinion supported by the official chart.
Brooklyn Strong “solidly bumped the outer part of the gate, then was jostled between horses at the start” from post 3, effectively ending any chance the 43-1 longshot had. Brooklyn Strong ran a decent but nonthreatening fifth a month before in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, but that race was off a four-month layoff, so that is excusable as well.
“He had a horrible break and then got demolished,” Velazquez said of the Derby. “Then he got all the kickback. It was hard to make up ground. Unfortunately, you don’t get a good read on your horse. In the Wood, I knew he was a little short. For the Derby, he looked great and was training awesome. At the end of the day, we still got beat by a lot (18 lengths). You just hope that doesn’t change the horse’s mental state.”
Schwartz and Velazquez are hoping to see the return of the horse that closed his 2-year-old campaign by winning the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes while recoding a 94 Beyer Speed Figure. They are also encouraged by the fact that he won the Sleepy Hollow Stakes at Belmont last October.
Schwartz and Velazquez have not confirmed a jockey for the Belmont, but they figure to have some good options, perhaps including Jose Ortiz, who was aboard for the Sleepy Hollow. The game of musical jockeys started when Flavien Prat opted to stick with Derby third Hot Rod Charlie over Rombauer, whom he rode to victory in last weekend’s Preakness Stakes.
Prat got the Derby mount on Hot Rod Charlie when trainer Doug O’Neill didn’t wait to see if he would lose Joel Rosario, who won the Louisiana Derby for him, to Concert Tour, and locked up Prat. Concert Tour did not run in the Derby, but Rosario landed on Rock Your World, freeing up Umberto Rispoli, who rode Brooklyn Strong.
Once Rombauer’s trainer Michael McCarthy picks a replacement for Prat, the dominoes will fall.
Brooklyn Strong was bred by Cheryl Prudhomme and Dr. Michael Gallivan and foaled at their Shamrock Hill Farm in Fort Edward. Prudhomme and Gallivan sold him as a weanling. Schwartz bought him for $5,000 at the 2020 OBS Spring 2-year-old sale.
After breaking his maiden at Delaware Park, Brooklyn Strong ran third in the Bertram Bongard Stakes and won the Sleepy Hollow. He took on open company in the Remsen and got up just before the wire to earn 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, which surprisingly ended up being enough to get in.
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Laobanonaprayer, another New York-bred trained by Velazquez, worked 5 furlongs in 1:01.17 at Parx Saturday as she prepares for the Bouwerie Stakes for 3-year-old state-bred fillies at Belmont on the May 31 Big Apple Showcase Day card.
“It looks like we are going. She worked perfect,” Velazquez said.
Laobanonaprayer, by Laoban out of the Raffie’s Majesty mare Raffie’s Chance, was bred by Christina Deronda and is owned in partnership by Velazquez, Schwartz and Larry Rush. The filly, who captured two state-bred stakes as a 2-year-old, will be looking for her first win this year, after running second and sixth in New York-bred stakes, with a fourth against open company in the Busher Invitational sandwiched between them.
“Hopefully, she will be the same horse she was before,” Velazquez said.
