Oxbow heads back to Kentucky; Incognito, Freedom Child looking to Saratoga

Oxbow heads back to Kentucky; Incognito, Freedom Child

looking to Saratoga

Belmont runner-up Oxbow, who won the Preakness three weeks ago, departed Belmont

Park early Sunday morning and was expected to arrive at Hall of Fame trainer D.

Wayne Lukas' Churchill Downs barn by 6:30 p.m. (EDT).

"Everyone was tickled with his performance," said Leigh Bentley, assistant to

Lukas. "He ran super and seemed to come back great. Everyone was quite pleased."

Oxbow, who ran sixth behind Orb in the Kentucky Derby, was a front-running, 1

3/4-length winner at Pimlico two weeks later. In Saturday's Belmont, the Awesome

Again colt was forwardly placed through an opening half-mile in :46 3/5 seconds

and three-quarters in 1:10 4/5, struck the lead with a mile going in 1:36 2/5 and

held on well to finish 3 1/5 lengths behind winner Palace Malice.

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin reported Sunday morning that Incognito emerged from

his fourth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes in good shape and will point

toward the Saratoga meet for his next start. With Palace Malice, and possibly

Orb, now pointing for the Grade 1, $1 million Travers on August 24, Saratoga

could end up featuring a Triple Crown reunion of sorts.

"He came out great; he's happy," McLaughlin said. "He ran well. I don't know

where we go, but obviously the Travers would be great to point for, with his

pedigree. If he could ever win that, he'd be a nice stallion. We feel like he

belongs with them, anyway."

A gray son of A.P. Indy, Incognito came from midpack to finish behind Palace

Malice, Preakness winner Oxbow and Kentucky Derby champion Orb in the 1 1/2-mile

Belmont, beaten just six lengths.

It was the seventh career start and only second in a stakes for Incognito, who

was ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. for the first time, replacing injured regular rider

Mike Luzzi.

"He ran a great race, and I thought Irad rode a great race for his first

Belmont," McLaughlin said. "He galloped out strong again yesterday. I don't

think he ever gets tired. I don't think it matters if it's a mile or a mile and

a half, he just seems to keep going."

McLaughlin believed the Belmont fit perfectly into a Triple Crown storyline that

included the first Derby for trainer Shug McGaughey, and a Preakness win for

77-year-old D. Wayne Lukas, his training mentor, and 50-year-old jockey Gary

Stevens, each a Hall of Famer.

"The winner was impressive. He ran very well. I didn't see that coming,"

McLaughlin remarked. "All three races are good stories for American racing, with

Wayne and Gary and (Orb's owners) Stuart Janney and the Phippses and Shug in the

Derby. And yesterday, (Palace Malice owner) Cot (Campbell), he was the original syndicator. It was nice for him to win."

As disappointed as he was in Freedom Child's 13th-place finish in the Belmont

Stakes, trainer Tom Albertrani was pleased with how well the Malibu Moon colt,

who was the third choice in the betting at 8-1, looked on Sunday morning.

"He came out good," Albertrani said. "It was maybe a little too much and a

little too far. I know the track was a little bit on the faster side, but it's

hard to say. They were kind of packed up together. The winner was just sitting a

length or two off of us into the first turn and coming out of the turn, so maybe

we just didn't get the trip.

"I was hoping that he'd show up a little bit better. He looked great. What are

you going to do? He had trained great. I couldn't have a horse look better for a

race."

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, St. Elias Stable and breeder Spendthrift

Farm, Freedom Child sat right behind fractions of :23 and :46 3/5 set by longshot Frac Daddy but began to drop back with a half-mile to run and wound up

beating only the pacesetter.

The Belmont followed an eye-opening 13 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Peter Pan

for Freedom Child on May 11 at Belmont Park, which came after the chestnut was

declared a non-starter in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial.

"He was pretty aggressive," Albertrani noted. "He was rating fine. He was sitting

in a good spot in second and it looked like he was traveling well. Oxbow came up

alongside him and (jockey) Luis (Saez) said he kept pushing him along and he

never had a chance to just make him relax. Maybe he just used up a lot of

energy."

Freedom Child will now be pointed toward the Saratoga meet and

three-year-old races like the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy at 1 1/8 miles on July

27 and the Travers at 1 1/4 miles.

"We'll just go shorter," Albertrani said. "We'll look at Saratoga, the Jim Dandy

or something like that. There's the Travers. It depends on how he comes back.

We've got options. Everything depends on how he bounces back. If he comes back

like he did out of the Wood and runs another (race like the) Peter Pan, we'll

play it by ear."

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