Mubtaahij in his new surroundings at Belmont Park, New York
Mike De Kock’s Belmont Stakes hopeful Mubtaahij took to Belmont Park’s inner turf course along with stablemate Umgiyo and posted a bullet five-furlong breeze two days after his arrival, on Sunday.
(“Bullet” or “bullet-work”: The best workout time for a particular distance on a given day at a track, indicated by a printer’s “bullet” that precedes the time of the workout in listings – Ed).
Clockers caught Mubtaahij in 1:01.11, while Umgiyo earned an official time of 1:01.15, the second-fastest of 22 works at the distance.
Mubtaahij arrived at Belmont on May 15 from in good order, following his eighth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby on May 2
“He’s a good traveller,” reported trainer Mike de Kock’s assistant, Trevor Brown, adding that the son of Dubawi has continued to keep weight on since his Derby run.
Brown was satisfied with the pair’s first work over the Belmont inner turf.
“Umgiyo is a proper turf horse and, of course, Mubtaahij is a dirt horse, so I was quite happy with the gallop,” Brown said. “I was pleased with both of them.”
Turf workouts are a common training regimen for the de Kock barn, even for dirt specialists such as Mubtaahij, according to Brown.
“Doesn’t matter if they’re turf, poly, or all-weather (horses), we’ll gallop them on the turf,” Brown said. “We just get a little more out of them galloping on the turf, as opposed to working on the dirt. On the dirt, they can come out a little stiff. As for the turf, it’s kinder on their legs.”
Umgiyo, most recently ninth in the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G2 ) at Churchill on the Kentucky Derby undercard, has been named to the $1 million Knob Creek Manhattan (gr. IT) on Belmont Stakes Day, as well as the $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational June 5.
“Umgiyo is named to both,” Brown said. “So we’ll see how strong (the Manhattan field) is. We just want to get his confidence back.”
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