Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Forte resumed serious business on Friday morning over the Belmont Park training track, working a half-mile in 50.40 for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher.
With exercise rider Hector Ramos aboard, Forte went to the training track following the 9:30 a.m. renovation break and breezed in company with graded stakes winner Major Dude, who is a probable contestant for next Friday's Grade 3, $250,000 Manila at Belmont. The move was Forte's first since finishing second in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10.
“We were just looking for an easy work back and I thought that was accomplished today,” said Pletcher's Belmont-based assistant Byron Hughes. “I thought he was moving well within himself. He looked comfortable and happy. You couldn't ask for anything more than that at this point.”
Forte won Gulfstream's Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on March 4 and Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1. He entered the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill Downs as the morning-line favorite, but was scratched the morning of the race with a bruised foot.
Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable's Tapit Trice breezed a solo half-mile in 48.03 seconds over the training track Friday with exercise rider Fernando Rivera in the irons. The move was the Grade 1-winning millionaire son of Tapit's second work since finishing third in the Belmont Stakes.
“I thought he breezed really well,” Hughes said. “It was a good gallop out for him. He looked pretty sharp today and came out of the Belmont in good shape. He's maybe a little sharper now this time of year than he was last year. But that's what you see in these Tapits. It seems like the older they get, the sharper they get.”
Tapit Trice won the Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby on March 11 at Tampa Bay Downs and the Grade 1 Blue Grass on April 8 at Keeneland en route to a seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.
Following Forte's breeze, last year's Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Nest took another step towards her 2023 debut, going five furlongs in 1:01.22 in company with Too Boss over the training track. Owned by Repole Stable, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Michael House, Nest has consistently breezed over the training track since mid-May.
“I think she's progressed well with each breeze,” Hughes said. “She seems to be getting fitter and fitter and responds well to the breeze. With each breeze you can tell that she gets a little sharper every week.”
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