Early Double
Transit of Venus is 3-1 on the morning line in the first at Belmont this afternoon, making his second start for trainer Gary Contessa after finishing third at the same level on Met Mile day. This was a bad beat for me: I played Transit of Venus at 5-1 in the fifth and had to watch in frustration as the 5-year-old gelding was checked in the stretch, then trapped behind a wall as the field neared the sixteenth. When rider Rajiv Maragh found a hole in the final yards, Transit’ burst through, actually getting a neck in front of ultimate winner Dancing Tin Man — two jumps after the wire. The best, but too late, so disappointing. Transit of Venus is returning among a similar bunch and has a decent work between starts, having breezed five furlongs in 1:01 on June 14, and figures to stay close to the whatever pace there might be in this affair. Also of note is Nkosi Reigns, 7-2 dropping in for a tag for the first time in his career. The 7-year-old gelding trained by Kiaran McLaughlin seems to prefer an unmolested lead to do his best, but does show an ability to rate and win in his past and could end up sitting off Provincetown, who tired in his last, the first off a layoff, or morning line favorite Bon Marie, who makes his third start in four weeks at the $35,000 level for trainer Rick Dutrow.
In the second, it’s hard to get past Sammarco with the eye-catching 102 Beyer he boasts after running second to Mucho Macho (returning in the eighth at Belmont today) on May 17, his first start in more than a year. Morning line says 6-5, but don’t be surprised if post-time odds are more like 4-5. Golden Weekend gets blinkers after a decent showing in a maiden special run over Belmont’s speed-favoring Belmont Stakes day track. That race, the day’s second, was won by Sixthirteen, who made his way to the inside rail and barely outlasted place horse Tiz It after posting fractions of :21.96 and :44.80 in the first half. I’m going to look toward 5-1 first-time starter Lincoln Road for a mild upset here. The 3-year-old colt is by one of my favorite underrated debut sires, Montbrook, and shows excellent recent gate works, including one on June 13, when he went five furlongs in 1:01, the fastest of 21 at the distance that day.
[Results: Well, I’m not going to crow over picking a $5.70 winner or an $11.60 double, but it was delightful to watch the first race unfold pretty much as I imagined it would and catch Transit of Venus this time around, along with the $105 trifecta. As Brooklyn Backstretch alludes to in her comment, my racing luck has not been so fantastic lately, and Saturday’s first was a much needed confidence boost, even if it didn’t exactly lead to a brag-worthy score.]
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