Afleet Alex Impressive In Wednesday Breeze Betting Belmont Stakes belmont stakes betting online

Afleet Alex Impressive In Wednesday Breeze
Preakness winner Afleet Alex breezed five-furlongs in 1:01.60 at Pimlico Wednesday morning in preparation for the June 11 Belmont Stakes. Regular rider Jeremy Rose was aboard for the 8:45 a.m. workout. Pimlico clocker Bryan Walls recorded fractions of 14 seconds (one-furlong), 26.40 (one quarter), 38 (three-furlongs) and 49.80 (half-mile). Afleet Alex galloped out in 1:14.2 for three quarters and 1:29 for seven-eighths of a mile. “I think he did everything very well,” said trainer Tim Ritchey. “Our plan was to start out easy and let him finish strong. He did it very easily and came back very good out of it. It was a maintenance breeze to make sure everything’s good with him. After watching that and how he came back, I think we are in good shape.” Afleet Alex and Rose overcame near disaster to win the second leg of the Triple Crown. The duo came flying around the far turn with dead aim on the leader, Scrappy T, when he was suddenly blocked. Scrappy T, racing in front of him entering the lane, suddenly bore out in response to left-handed whipping by jockey Ramon Dominguez. In a flash Afleet Alex stumbled, buckled to his knees and almost unseated Rose. The athletic colt and his 26-year-old pilot quickly recovered their balance, dove inside Scrappy T and charged to a widening 4-3/4 length victory. “He’ll live in history after that race and he deserves it,” said Rose. “That race will be shown for two decades. I don’t know how to explain it. There was an unbelievable amount of fear. Obviously we wanted to get come back on our feet and not get run over by anyone. He lost maybe a half-length on Scrappy T and that’s it. It was one of those things that you had to be on his back to understand how scary it is.” Eleven days after his remarkable victory in the 130th Preakness Stakes®, the son of Northern Afleet is still at Old Hilltop. He was scheduled to leave the Pimlico stakes barn last Saturday and work at Belmont Park, but due to the suspected case of strangles at the Long Island track, Ritchey has elected to keep Afleet Alex at Pimlico until New York Racing Association officials have control of the situation. “I didn’t want to put his health at risk and would never do that,” added Ritchey. “I would have liked to have been at Belmont to have him train over that racetrack. Just like I came here early (May 11) I would have liked to have gotten there early. That wasn’t meant to be, so we’ll work with what we have. Hopefully we can ship on Saturday.” Although the Belmont Stakes is 10 days away, the 1 ½-mile “Test of the Champion” is expected to serve as a rubber match between Afleet Alex and Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo. Another seven contenders are also considering the $1 million classic. “None of them really scare me,” explained Rose. “All are very nice horses, very accomplished horses. They have to be to run in this race, but as long as Alex is under me, he does talking. He just does what he does and pretty much silences everybody, especially after the Preakness. Now they are saying he can’t go a mile and a half. Do you think it would have mattered in that race? If it were a mile and a half, how many more would we have won by?” Ritchey said his star will walk the shedrow Thursday. The plan is to jog and gallop Friday. Prior to Saturday’s likely ship Belmont, Afleet Alex will train lightly and hopefully leave Baltimore during the 11 o’clock hour.