Kentucky Derby winner Orb pumped some much-needed juice into Saturday’s 145th Belmont Stakes when he breezed a solid half-mile in :48.30 seconds yesterday at Belmont Park, prompting trainer Shug McGaughey to give the thumbs-up for a run in the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion” — and a rubber-match with Preakness winner Oxbow.
“I talked with Mr. [Stuart] Janney (who co-owns Orb with Dinny Phipps), and we’re all on the same page,” said McGaughey, who was eyeing the Belmont even before Orb finished a mystifying fourth in the Preakness. “If he has a good week, we’re a ‘go.’ I think the Belmont is a race that stands on its own. We would love to compete in it, and love to have a good chance to win.”
Working in company, as he’d done before his victories in the Fountain of Youth, Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby — this time with the older stakes horse Hymn Book as his target — Orb went the first quarter in :25.01, surged past Hymn Book at the wire, then galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.48 under regular exercise rider Jennifer Patterson, who was “very happy” with the drill.
“He started off nice and steady, which Shug wanted, and finished up strong,” Patterson said. “I gave him his head at the eighth pole and he opened up his stride. He did everything very easily and came off the track bucking and playing. Everything went right this morning.”
Only a smattering of onlookers were on hand for the work, a far cry from the crush of reporters and network TV crews that would have flooded Belmont if Orb had won at Pimlico and were going for the Triple Crown.
“I’m disappointed,” said McGaughey, who admitted to thinking what might have been. “Not necessarily for me, but I’m disappointed there wouldn’t be the electricity around here that there would have been. And the people were so good and got behind the horse so much, I felt like we disappointed them.
“That’s why Preakness week, I felt more pressure than Derby week because I saw what was going on. I knew if we won down there and got back up here, they’d be playing our game.”
Looking back at the Preakness, McGaughey said “nothing went right,” beginning with drawing post 1: “I thought there would be more speed to where it was spread out and we could get position. It didn’t happen. When the other riders had him down inside, they weren’t going to let him out, especially as slow as they were going.
“I think the racetrack was different. It was very loose, and down on the rail was even worse. With all the times she’s ridden at Pimlico, Rosie [Napravnik, who finished third in the Preakness on Mylute] told somebody that she’s never seen the racetrack that loose. ‘I was following Orb and saw him struggling, so I got out of there’ [she said].
“I just attribute [the loss] to it wasn’t our day.”
Since then, McGaughey said of Orb, “He hasn’t missed a beat. Everything’s been A-1 forward. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. I think if things go right Saturday, we’ll see a different horse than we saw two weeks ago.”