Forty Tales set for Bold Ruler; Brown taking time with Bakken

Forty Tales set for Bold Ruler; Brown taking time with

Bakken

Next weekend, trainer Todd Pletcher looks to have a strong hand in both the Grade

3 Bold Ruler Handicap for sprinters and the Grade 3 Turnback The Alarm Handicap

for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles, the final two graded stakes of

Belmont's fall meet.

Forty Tales, most recently fourth in both the Vosburgh at Belmont and the King's Bishop at Saratoga, gets

some class relief in the seven-furlong Bold Ruler. Victorious in the Woody

Stephens on Belmont Stakes Day and the Derby Trial at Churchill Downs, Forty Tales had been under consideration for the

Breeders' Cup Sprint.

"When we decided not to do to the Breeders' Cup Sprint, this became the most

logical option," Pletcher said of the Bold Ruler. "Seven-eighths is probably his

ideal distance."

In the Turnback the Alarm, Royal Lahaina and Fantasy of Flight will be making

their first starts for Pletcher, who won the race in 2009 with Unbridled Belle

and in 2006 with Indian Vale.

Owned by James Riccio, Royal Lahaina most recently finished second in the Lady's

Secret at Monmouth Park for trainer Rudy Rodriguez, while Fantasy of Flight was

seventh in the Ballerina for owner Sanford Robbins and trainer Michelle Nevin.

"We've had Royal Lahina for five or six weeks now and she's been

training well," Pletcher said of the five-year-old Chapel Royal mare. "There haven't been a lot of

options for her, so we've been targeting this for a while now.

"It's a similar situation with Fantasy of Flight," he added of the

five-year-old Tiznow mare, who in her only start beyond a mile was second by a half-length in

an optional claimer at Aqueduct in March 2012. "Most of her races have been

shorter, but we're going to try her at 1 1/16 miles."

Trainer Chad Brown is pointing Street Secret to the Turnback the Alarm.

Street Secret, who placed in stakes in France and Germany before being purchased

by Peter A. Putsch, finished in a dead heat for third in the Miss Liberty in May

at Monmouth Park, her second start in the United States. She has competed three

times on the dirt in restricted stakes since the Miss Liberty, winning the Open

Mind in June at Belmont and finishing second in both the Alada in August at

Saratoga and the Parlo on September 19 back at Belmont.

"She has been doing really well since we put her on the dirt, and we're

looking forward to trying a graded stake on the dirt," Brown said of the

five-year-old daughter of Street Cry. "She had been running on the turf over in

France. She had always trained well on the dirt, and her pedigree suggested she

could possibly handle the dirt. When the opportunity came to try her on the

dirt, we went for it, and it has worked out well so far."

Brown added that plans remain undetermined for Mr. and Mrs. William K.

Warren's Bakken, a three-year-old who debuted a 6 1/2-length winner on Sunday in

a six-furlong maiden race. Bakken, a son of Distorted Humor, is a half-brother

to Grade 2 winners Chace City and Justwhistledixie.

"We were cautiously optimistic he would run an impressive race," Brown said.

"You never know until you lead them over there. He ran fast and my gut tells me

to give him time after that figure, although he didn't look like he was extended

to do it.

"He's a horse with an enormous amount of ability, as you can see, and,

hopefully, we can develop him into a stake horse."

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