GIACOMO WILL BE READY FOR BELMONT.Byline: KEVIN MODESTI Horse Racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with INGLEWOOD - Giacomo lost his very long shot at a Triple Crown sweep when Afleet Alex Afleet Alex (born May 9, 2002 in Florida) is an American thoroughbred race horse who, in 2005, won two of America's classic races, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. scored a dramatic victory in the Preakness. But that's all Giacomo lost, judging by the sights and sounds Thursday morning at Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
The horse was looking great. The trainer was talking tough. It seemed Giacomo came home not to hide, but to gird for further battle. ``I was surprised when he walked off the van (after the flight from) Pimlico,'' trainer John Shirreffs John A. Shirreffs (born June 1, 1945 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Based in California, Vietnam War veteran John Shirreffs began training Thoroughbreds in 1978. said as Giacomo stretched his neck over a yellow Preakness stall webbing and took a mouthful of hay. ``He didn't look like he'd lost a pound.'' If winning the Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. and running third in the Preakness had taken a lot out of Giacomo, you'd expect it to show on his 1,100-pound frame. Maybe Afleet Alex is counting his limbs these days, making sure they're all attached after his near-fall at the top of the stretch on the way to a 4 3/4-length victory over Scrappy T in the Preakness. Giacomo appears to be none the worse for wear after the trip to Louisville and Baltimore. Shirreffs is conceding nothing, as he keeps Giacomo in fighting trim for the June 11 Belmont Stakes Belmont Stakes Oldest of the three U.S. horse races that constitute the Triple Crown. The Belmont originated in 1867 and is named after August Belmont (see Belmont family). The stakes is held in early June at Belmont Park, near Garden City, Long Island; the course is 1.5 mi (2,400 m). in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . The soft-spoken trainer doesn't buy the prevailing theory that Giacomo's Derby victory is tainted by his 50-1 odds or the super-fast early pace that destroyed Bellamy Road and other favorites. ``As far as I know, the 20 best 3-year-olds from the prep races were in the starting gate starting gate n. Sports 1. A series of stalls with interconnected doors that open simultaneously at the beginning of a race. 2. for the Kentucky Derby,'' Shirreffs said Thursday as he watched a few of his 55 horses walk laps around the shed rows. ``You get one shot. It's not four out of seven, like the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= . It's one race, and it's over. We're not saying Giacomo is Secretariat. But, personally, I appreciate the effort Giacomo made in the Kentucky Derby to rally from 18th and have to weave through traffic to get up.'' Shirreffs doesn't view the Preakness as proof Afleet Alex is the best 3-year-old. Giacomo jockey Mike Smith came back saying he and Afleet Alex rider Jeremy Rose were going for the same hole as they raced 10th and 11th going into the far turn at Pimlico, and that Afleet Alex just got there quicker. Whether or not that explains the 9 3/4-length gap between them at the finish, Shirreffs was proud of the effort. ``First in the Derby, third in the Preakness - not bad for an old California-trained horse,'' Shirreffs said, referring to the general disregard for horses coming out of the Santa Anita Derby The Santa Anita Derby is an American Grade 1 thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds run each April at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California and carries a purse of $750,000. . Shirreffs doesn't agree with those who would have Giacomo pass up the Belmont to rest for the summer's major 3-year-old stakes at Saratoga, Monmouth and Hollywood Park and the fall's showdowns with 4-year-olds and up. ``These are opportunities that come once in a horse's career,'' Shirreffs said of the Triple Crown races. ``I've learned if you pass a race, you might not make the next race. Horses have more problems in the mornings than they do in the afternoons, as far as injuries go. To put off the Belmont to run in the Travers or the Swaps, that doesn't make any sense. We started off on this journey to the Triple Crown. We should complete it.'' This won't be the first time Shirreffs runs a horse three times in a five-week stretch. But it might be the first time since his former life as a trainer on the Northern California county-fairs circuit, on which horses have to compete so often because purses are so low. One thing Shirreffs will concede to Giacomo's doubters is that the gray colt must continue to improve to have a chance of beating the best older horses. Memorial Day features two Grade I races at Hollywood Park and the appearance of one of last year's Breeders' Cup winners. Singletary, the upsetter in the Breeders' Cup Mile, will have David Flores Flores, town, Guatemala Flores (flōrəs), town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the aboard in the $350,000 Shoemaker Mile. With favorite Megahertz One million cycles per second. See MHz. MegaHertz - (MHz) Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate of modern digital logic, including microprocessors. out of the $350,000 Gamely Handicap, because trainer Bobby Frankel was unhappy with the mare's 124-pound assignment, the race's prospective field grew to include Miss Terrible, Amorama, Island Fashion, Solar Echo, Halo Ola, Mea Domina, Uraib, Nadeszhda and Andujar. CAPTION(S): box Box: OUT OF THE GATE - Kevin Modesti |
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