{"id":4434,"date":"2010-06-03T21:31:01","date_gmt":"2010-06-04T02:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=4434"},"modified":"2010-06-03T21:31:01","modified_gmt":"2010-06-04T02:31:01","slug":"warm-reception-for-ice-box-in-belmont-stakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=4434","title":{"rendered":"Warm reception for Ice Box in Belmont Stakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trainer
Trainer Nick Zito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box, trained by Nick Zito,\u00a0is the slight the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s running of the $1 million Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park.<\/p>\n

Neither Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver nor Preakness champion Lookin At Lucky will run in the 142nd edition of the 1 1\/2-mile race. Preakness runner-up First Dude is the second choice at 7-2 and Withers Stakes champ Fly Down is third at 9-2.<\/p>\n

Last week, Ice Box posted a bullet four furlong workout at Saratogo, while Fly Down, also trained by Zito, turned in a bullet last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Ice Box had fired a bullet seven days before winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby in March and again seven days before his runner-up finish in the Kentucky Derby. Fly Down, meantime, turned in a bullet work at Churchill Downs on May 3, five days before winning the Grade 2 Dwyer at Belmont.<\/p>\n

“We sharpened (Ice Box) up before the Derby; we’re doing the same thing before the Belmont and hoping it works,” said Zito, who won the Belmont with Birdstone in 2004 and with Da’ Tara in 2008.<\/p>\n

“It’s not an exact science. Those workouts, it’s not how you get the horses to go a mile and a half, a mile and a quarter, a mile and an eighth \u2013 it’s what they do every single day. We put a lot of miles on them every morning because it’s in [their breeding] to go a distance of ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owned by Robert LaPenta, Ice Box has career earnings of $906,534 with three wins in eight starts. Fly Down, owned by Richard Pell, was sixth in the Louisiana Derby and is the winner of three of five lifetime starts for $182,070.<\/p>\n

First Dude, trained by Dale Romans for Donald Dizney, was fifth in the Florida Derby and third in the Blue Grass Stakes, then skipped the Kentucky Derby before his second-place finish to Lookin At Lucky in the Preakness. In a seven-race career he has one win, four seconds and a third for $352,160.<\/p>\n

Trainer Bob Baffert, who decided to skip the Belmont with Luckin At Lucky, even before the colt’s Preakness win, will saddle Game On Dude in the race, instead. The Awesome Again-sired colt won the Lone Star Derby in his last start and had a bullet six furlong workout at Santa Anita on May 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing what this horse will do going a distance of ground,\u201d said Baffert. \u201cThe whole key is having a horse that can go that far and we\u2019ll know about the three-eighths pole how we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game On Dude has five lifetime starts, all in 2010; the Belmont will be his third start for Baffert.<\/p>\n

Here is the complete field for the Belmont Stakes in post position order: Dave in Dixie, 20-1, Calvin Borel; Spangled Star, 30-1, Garrett Gomez; Uptowncharlybrown, 10-1, Rajiv Maragh; Make Music for Me, 10-1, Joel Rosario; Fly Down, 9-2, John Velazquez; Ice Box, 3-1, Jose Lezcano; Drosselmeyer, 12-1, Mike Smith; Game On Dude, 10-1, Martin Garcia; Stately Victor, 15-1, Alan Garcia; Stay Put, 20-1, Jamie Theriot; First Dude, 7-2, Ramon Dominguez and Interactif, 12-1, Javier Castellano.<\/p>\n

Post-time for the Belmont Stakes is scheduled for 6:27 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Derby runner-up Ice Box, trained by Nick Zito,\u00a0is the slight the 3-1 morning-line favorite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4434"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4438,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4434\/revisions\/4438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}