Dale Romans talks Belmont Stakes prep and tactics
Winning the Belmont Stakes is a thinking man’s game, and Dale Romans is on it.
During a Belmont Stakes preview teleconference, trainer Dale Romans shared his thoughts on getting horses mentally and physically ready for the 1 ½ mile trip over the Belmont oval. Romans has two runners headed to the Belmont: Cherry Wine, second in the Preakness Stakes, and Brody’s Cause, seventh in the Kentucky Derby.
As a two-year-old, Brody’s Cause beat Exaggerator over 1 1/16 miles in the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity and finished ahead of him in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile over the same distance. As the Belmont is lining up, Brody’s Cause is the only horse in the race to have bested Exaggerator.
An extra quarter-mile makes all the difference in the Belmont Stakes
Adding a quarter-mile to the distance required for the Kentucky Derby makes the Belmont Stakes a test of endurance coupled with speed. Horses are creatures of habit and routine, they become familiar with training and racing protocols. It takes forethought to get a horse attuned to running beyond the usual, shorter distances. Romans acknowledged in a New York Racing Association interivew going years ago to the fabled trainer Allen Jerkens for advice on prepping for the Belmont:
"Allen talked to me about it with one of my first Belmont horses. To go that far, they’re not out there that long usually in a race, and you just want to get them mentally ready to go a mile and a half and run for that length of time, which is unusual for them. I like to keep them on the racetrack a lot in the morning when they’re training. You don’t have to do that much with them, don’t overdo it, but just keep them out there where they know—they’re used to being on the racetrack for the amount of time it’ll take to run the mile and a half."
How the Belmont may play out
When you think of route races of a mile and a quarter or over, a deep closer may seem the no-brainer to win. However, races at a mile and a half over Belmont‘s “Big Sandy” play out differently. Romans outlined the likely scenario for his two horses in the Belmont Stakes:
"This race doesn’t look like it has that kind of speed. A lot of people think it’ll be a deep closer’s race because they want to go further, but Woody Stevens used to say it was a speed horse race to go a mile and a half. You need to be out there on the pace because they’re all tired at the end.I think both my horses may be laying a little bit closer or quite a bit closer. I know Cherry Wine will be laying a lot closer. We’re not going to go 28 lengths out of it and try to make it up on a mile and a half on this track without pace, so he’ll be laying a lot closer, and I think he can do that. I don’t think that he’s a horse that has to be way back like that, I just—that was a strategy that we thought gave him his best chance in the Preakness and it worked pretty well for him."
Final main track workouts for Roman’s Belmont Stakes bound duo
Cherry Wine breezed five furlongs in 1:00.12.
Brody’s Cause went three furlongs in :37.11.
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