Casino Drive works American style at Belmont (Sarah K Andrew)

I was just perusing flickr and found this note by Sarah interesting…

The Japanese connections of Casino Drive have a very cool way of working with their horses. Every morning, Casino Drive is tacked up around 5:30am. He and two other stable mates walk around the entire backside, picking up speed throughout their 45 minute walk until they are doing a verrry strong power-walk.

Then they walk the horses to the paddock to get them used to it for race day. Then they jog or gallop on track, depending on their training for the day. When they are done, they go back to the stable area and walk for another 45 minutes… first briskly, then they slow them down.

I’m no horsewoman, but who are we to think that only our way of working horses is appropriate? Clearly they’re doing something right!

I’m also intrigued by the maiden entry, Guadalcanal. You can’t do much better than Javier Castellano right now either. He’s currently 21% at Belmont and giving great rides to long shots all over the place, most notably Brookhaven’s Money this past Sunday in the 3rd, the Spectacular Bid in the NY Stallion Series.

I like owner/trainer Fred Seitz’s attitude:

He was bred for a route, he trains like he will want a route, and there are not many opportunities to race against 3-year-olds at 1 ½ miles. If we are on the board, we will be happy.

He’s got a point regarding mile and half opportunities!

Denis of Cork, Take of Ekati, Anak Nakal, Icabad Crane and Ready’s Echo are all of interest to me too, mind you, I haven’t really looked too closely yet.

Ah yes, and in case you were wondering about the Big Brown One, you can always look here for Big Brown’s Belmont Odds!