The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) has canceled training on Thursday at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course due to poor air quality conditions forecast to impact New York State overnight and into Thursday morning.
Training ordinarily takes place daily at Belmont from 5:30-10:30 a.m. and at Saratoga from 5:30-11 a.m.
A decision regarding Thursday's live racing program, which has a first post of 3:05 p.m., will be made Thursday morning following a review of the air quality conditions and forecast.
As live racing cancellations continued to mount Wednesday in light of unhealthy air quality due to residual smoke from Canadian wildfires, training will be prohibited Thursday morning at both Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course, the New York Racing Association (NYRA) announced Wednesday evening. This is particularly impactful as Belmont's three-day Belmont Stakes Racing Festival is scheduled to kick off Thursday afternoon.
A decision regarding Thursday's live racing program at Belmont, which has a first post of 3:05 p.m. and will feature the GII Wonder Again S. for 3-year-old fillies on grass, will be made Thursday morning following a review of the air quality conditions and forecast, NYRA said.
A total of 15 graded races are scheduled to be run over the three-day Festival, highlighted by Saturday's running of the GI Belmont S., the third leg of the Triple Crown.
While the likes of Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits), Continuar (Jpn) (Drefong) and Mandarin Hero (Jpn) (Shanghai Bobby) were off representing Japan in age-restricted races from Saudi Arabia to Dubai to the U.S. this winter and spring, Mick Fire (Jpn) (Sinister Minister) remained at home, where the bay colt, a perfect three from three at Ohi Racecourse in 2022, was being patiently brought along towards his 3-year-old debut.
The bay colt, acquired for ¥5.5 million at the 2021 Hokkaido Summer Yearling Sale, had earned back his purchase price in easily running the table in three appearances as a juvenile and made a splashy return to the races in the Haneda Hai allowance May 10. In that 1800-meter affair, Mick Fire defeated heavily favoured Hero Call (Jpn) (Hokko Tarumae {Jpn}), who had previously accounted for future GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby runner-up Mandarin Hero in a similar test back in February.
Wednesday's ¥85 million ($606,730) Tokyo Derby over the metric mile and a quarter served as a course-and-distance allowance prep for the July 12 Listed Japan Dirt Derby, a race that could well attract those Japanese horses that plied their trade overseas earlier in the season, in addition to the highly progressive Yuttitham (Jpn) (Justify).
Sent off the 1-2 favorite in a 15-runner field that also included 5-2 second choice Hero Call, Mick Fire bounced well from the 12 hole and sat a stalking trip from the two path. Hero Call rolled up three deep outside of Mick Fire passing the three-furlong pole, but the latter was always going the better of the two, hit the front with a bit less than a quarter-mile to race and glided home a six-length winner in race-record time.
A son of the 20-year-old Sinister Minister, conditioned by Bob Baffert to a 12 3/4-length victory in the 2006 GI Toyota Blue Grass S., Mick Fire counts 1983 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine and U.S. Horse of the Year, three-time Grade I winner and inaugural GI Breeders' Cup Turf runner-up All Along (Fr) (Targowice) as his third dam.
