Sports

Pletcher quintet gets loose for Belmont Stakes

It wasn’t exactly the Charge of the Light Brigade, but the main track at Belmont Park was pockmarked by the hoofprints of trainer Todd Pletcher’s cavalry yesterday morning as he worked five candidates for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes — Revolutionary, Overanalyze, Palace Malice, Midnight Taboo and the filly Unlimited Budget — all of which went in company.

Unlimited Budget, who won her first four starts before finishing third in the Kentucky Oaks, is “80-90 percent” certain to run in the Belmont, Pletcher said, after the daughter of Street Sense drilled a bullet four furlongs in :47.55.

“She worked well, really well,” said Pletcher, who won the 2007 Belmont with the filly Rags to Riches. “She was full of run throughout, finished up strongly, galloped out well and seemed to cool out well. With her on the outside [of workmate Capo Bastone], she seemed to get over the ground well.”

The decision whether to run will be made today by her owner, Mike Repole, who also owns Overanalyze and Midnight Taboo.

“Basically [Repole] is holding the cards in terms of how many we end up running,” Pletcher said. “With Midnight Taboo [who worked five furlongs in 1:00.88], the Easy Goer Stakes [on the Belmont undercard] is an option. It’s just a matter of how aggressive Mike wants to be, and take a shot with a horse that’s lightly raced but has some talent. It would be asking a lot for him to win the Belmont in his fourth start, but strange things have happened.”

Pletcher’s three confirmed Belmont starters all worked a half-mile: Revolutionary (third in the Kentucky Derby) went in :48.51, Overanalyze (11th in the Derby) in :48.01, and Palace Malice (12th in the Derby) in :47.56.

“They were almost mirror images of each other,” Pletcher said. “I can’t say that one stood out from the others.”

Incognito breezed four furlongs in :48.25 over the training track for Kiaran McLauglin, while Tom Albertani’s Freedom Child had an unusually strong gallop down the lane.