Sole Volante Breezes On Grass In Advance Of Kentucky Derby

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Andie Biancone's Sole Volante breezed a mile Sunday morning on the turf at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream Park's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, Florida, in preparation for a scheduled start in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby (G1).

The Patrick Biancone-trained son of Karakontie was timed in 1:40 in his first breeze since finishing off the board in the June 20 Belmont Stakes (G1).

Sole Volante breezed in company, sitting off stablemate Shrewdness into the stretch before drawing clear without encouragement from Luca Panici.

“He worked really well,” said Andie Biancone, her father's assistant trainer. “He's doing great.”

Sole Volante captured the Pulpit Stakes, in which he defeated Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner King Guillermo on turf, and finished third in the Mucho Macho Man at Gulfstream Park before capturing the Sam F. Davis (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs. He went on to finish second behind King Guillermo in the Tampa Bay Derby and win a stakes-quality allowance at Gulfstream before sustaining his first out-of-the-money finish in the Belmont.

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Sole Volante To Train Up To Kentucky Derby; Ete Indien Suffers Setback

Trainer Patrick Biancone spoke to Horse Racing Nation about his two Kentucky Derby hopefuls on Tuesday, laying out his decision to train Sole Volante up to the Sept. 5 race and revealing that Ete Indien had suffered a setback in his training.

Ete Indien, the 3-year-old Summer Front colt whose record includes a win in the G2 Fountain of Youth, is now “50-50” to make the Run for the Roses. Biancone said he would not rush Ete Indien, and the next 10 days will be vital to determining whether the colt remains on the Kentucky Derby trail.

Meanwhile, plans for Sole Volante will take advantage of the 2 1/2 months between the Belmont Stakes and the Derby. The Karakontie colt won the G3 Sam Davis before finishing second in the G2 Tampa Bay Derby, then won a Gulfstream allowance race over the favored Ete Indien in early June. Ten days later, Biancone sent Sole Volante to New York to run in the Belmont Stakes, only to see him finish a disappointing sixth.

“I got stupid to run him,” Biancone told Horse Racing Nation. “I misjudged the energy level and the inside nervousness. He's usually a very cool horse. So we took a shot. I made a wrong decision. We spent $30,000 on the plane to fly the horse (from Florida to New York). But anyway, it's done. What can I do? Nobody's perfect. I got it wrong that time.”

Sole Volante will now train up to the Kentucky Derby, and Biancone hopes that his 30 points will be enough to secure the colt a spot in the starting gate. As it stands, Sole Volante is 20th on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, while Ete Indien is eighth with 74 points. Biancone said he would not chase more points with Sole Volante, and intends to bring him to the Derby fresh.

Read more at Horse Racing Nation.

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This Side Up: Inside-Out Classic Has Redemptive Potential

The last shall be first; and the longest, shortest. Insofar, that is, as we have a Triple Crown series at all. This year, to many, the

GI Belmont S. is just another mile-and-eighth GI Kentucky Derby prep, conveniently loaded with qualifying points. For those deigning to line up, however, an asterisk is a perfectly acceptable price for becoming a 152nd consecutive name in the annals of the oldest Classic, extending all the way back to Ruthless at Jerome Park.

The modern ruthless can perhaps be found at Churchill Downs instead–albeit we still don’t know if they will be able to bank the gate money that appeared, rather transparently, to drive their contemptuous treatment of those tracks that host the other Classics, not to mention historic prizes like the GI Runhappy Travers S.

The unilateral postponement to September of the Kentucky Derby represented one of our sport’s very first responses to the pandemic. A sudden, shared crisis called for far-sighted leadership, collective strategy and a spirit of sacrifice. As it was, we saw an immediate fragmentation by vested interests.

Whatever the merit of the resulting schedule, the 2020 Derby will clearly be tailored to Thoroughbreds at a different stage of their development. And already both the sophomores who were ready to win a Grade I over 10 furlongs on May 2 are out of the picture.

But the misfortunes that derailed Charlatan (Speightstown) and Nadal (Blame) can afflict any Thoroughbred, any time. Maxfield (Street Sense), after all, was only ever able to approach the Derby through the back door-and now he, too, is off the trail. Some things never change, and the few immutabilities of these confusing times are not always comforting.

Connections of Maxfield, of course, had already renounced the Belmont in favor of the GII Blue Grass S. That was perfectly defensible, in serving the interests of a specific horse. But all these defections, taken together, rob us of a solace we desperately needed in this horrible year.

That said, we still have the redemptive prospect of an East-West showdown between Honor A.P. (Honor Code) in California, and whoever picks up the gauntlet in New York Saturday.

And there’s a word–“redemptive”–we may hear a great deal should Sole Volante (Karakontie {Jpn}) emerge as best in the East. Now I realize that many people will never even give Patrick Biancone a hearing, in protesting his innocence of charges past. Without remotely entertaining his side of the story, they would cheerfully have “thrown away the key” when it came to his return. It takes some courage, indeed, even to enunciate one of the principles that defines a just society: guilty or not, he is entitled to start over after duly serving the punishment ordained for his (perceived/denied) offenses.

Perhaps, then, his only viable redemption–given that some will never be reconciled to his rehabilitation, whatever he does–would be to succeed afresh by methods that he knows, in his own heart, to be whiter than white. If he can never win round everybody else, all Biancone can realistically do is look himself in the mirror knowing that he has relied scrupulously and solely on his flair as a horseman (which it would be churlish to deny) while lacking the kind of patronage he previously enjoyed. For instance, in winning a Classic with a $20,000 gelding.

Human dignity is too precious, and too precarious, to be denied by mere presumption. To see Biancone reassemble his self-respect, somehow sieving out two of the best sophomores of their crop (the other being Ete Indien {Summer Front}, spectacular winner of the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S.), should at least intrigue any truly humane observer.

Our presumptions, remember, are based on the herd–and anyone can see that Biancone is an uncommon creature. Just consider the way he has brought out these two turf-bred horses.     Who else, nowadays, would have prepared Sole Volante (alongside Ete Indien) with a $55,000 allowance prize 10 days ago? And who else would have sufficient courage of their convictions to recognize in Luca Panici, a 46-year-old who has previously ridden a single graded stakes winner, a horsemanship and character equal to this opportunity?

A single turn won’t play to the strengths of Panici’s mount, especially if Belmont is feeding the speed. He will surely risk traffic on the inside sooner than get stuck wide rounding that endless sweep out of the back stretch, especially out of gate two.

With luck, there should be enough pace for a gap to open as they tire up front. The rails draw hands the initiative to Tap It to Win (Tapit) after he burned off a talented pursuer here last time; while Fore Left (Twirling Candy) forged his Dubai success from the front, and likewise a stakes win last summer on his only previous Belmont start. Between them, perhaps they can generate enough heat to ignite Sole Volante’s acceleration.

Whether he can get going in time to outfinish Tiz The Law (Constitution) remains to be seen. That horse sets the clear standard, with a Grade I already to his name round here plus a congenial stalking set-up. So long as Sole Volante again finishes with gusto, however, he can at least keep himself in the Derby picture.

Of the less seasoned types, Max Player (Honor Code) offers his sire a coast-to-coast foothold for superstardom; Pneumatic (Uncle Mo) fared creditably enough against Maxfield, having looked special in his maiden; while Dr Post (Quality Road) has already shown fight of a sort he might have borrowed from his purchaser, the late Jimmy Crupi.

Now there was a guy who showed, with all the disadvantages he was dealt, that you can start at the back of the line and still, with enough industry and wit, work your way to the front. Anticipating the likely run of the race, however, this time it may turn out to be Sole Volante who decrees that the last shall be first.

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The Haiku Handicapper Presented By BC2A Equine Sports Performance: 2020 Belmont Stakes

Time to analyze the 2020 Belmont Stakes field, in post position order, in the form of Haiku; a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five.

To read previous editions of The Haiku Handicapper, click here.

#1 – Tap It to Win
Did some growing up
From erratic rookie year
Could see redemption

#2 – Sole Volante
Would have liked him more
At a mile and a half
More room to uncoil

#3 – Max Player
Four months on the bench
Bred to get better with age
Wide range of outcomes

#4 – Modernist
Steady and proven
Doesn't enthrall, but trust goes
To Mott in New York

#5 – Farmington Road
Mid-to-deep closer
Has a graded stakes ceiling
Should get a small check

#6 – Fore Left
Last-minute entry
Found his mojo in Dubai
Too much still unknown

#7 – Jungle Runner
Calumet horses
Tend to blow up trifectas
But this one's helpless

#8 – Tiz the Law
The enduring force
In a crumbling division
It all goes through him

#9 – Dr Post
Can't knock his progress
This is his boldest jump yet
He's live in this group

#10 – Pneumatic
Two good ones beat him
Last time out in the Matt Winn
That's his selling point

Prediction
The scales of justice
Tip to the Cide of the Law
Three and four follow

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