- Trainer Todd Pletcher said Grade 1 Belmont Stakes champion Tapwrit could make his next start in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 29 or the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park the following day.
- Pletcher intends to keep Tapwrit and his Grade 1 Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming apart in their next races before they face off in Saratoga’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga on August 26.
- Belmont Stakes runner-up Irish War Cry exited his effort in good form and will proceed to the Haskell Invitational.
- Pletcher’s Belmont Stakes show finisher Patch could return in Saratoga’s July 28 Curlin Stakes.
- Meantime, who finished eighth in the Belmont, will receive a freshening with his next start to be determined.
- Conditioner Dallas Stewart said Hollywood Handsome, who was pulled up by jockey Florent Geroux after the rider lost his irons when the duo clipped heels with Twisted Tom on the Belmont’s clubhouse turn, was being treated with antibiotics for a deep laceration behind his left knee.
- Japanese invader Epicharis, who failed a veterinarian’s exam for his injured right front foot and had to be scratched from the Belmont on the morning of the race, will return to Japan on June 15.
- Juvenile champion Classic Empire, who missed the Belmont because of an abscess, will ship back to Churchill Downs June 12 as he continues to recover in the hopes of making the Haskell.
- Trainer Bob Baffert’s West Coast, winner of the Easy Goer Stakes on the Belmont undercard, is likely to return to the east coast for the Haskell, Jim Dandy or Grade 2 West Virginia Derby on August 5.
- Baffert’s Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes victor American Anthem is also a Haskell candidate, but will likely aim for Saratoga’s Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (formerly the King’s Bishop Stakes) on August 26.
- Kentucky Derby eighth-place runner McCraken remains on target for his return in Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes on June 17.
- Grade 2 Wood Memorial Stakes runner-up Battalion Runner and unbeaten Coal Front, a Belmont Park allowance winner on June 8, are under consideration for the Belmont’s Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes on July 8.
