Belmont Stakes Contender News & Notes: June 5, 2017

  • Japanese invader Epicharis was released from quarantine shortly after 11:30 a.m. on June 3 and went straight to the training track at Belmont Park for a private training session in advance of the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 10.
  • Trainer Kiyoshi Hagiwara plans to have Epicharis breeze five furlongs on June 6 or 7.
  • Conditioner Todd Pletcher confirmed Calumet Farm’s Patch, 14th in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby, for the Belmont Stakes.
  • Trainer Dale Romans confirmed that Robby Albarado, who missed the Kentucky Derby due to an injury, will regain the mount on Kentucky Derby 15th-place finisher J Boys Echo in the Belmont Stakes.
  • Grade 1 Preakness Stakes sixth-place finisher Multiplier will be vanned from his Keeneland base in Lexington to Louisville in time to join Preakness runner-up Classic Empire and J Boys Echo on a June 6 flight to New York for the Belmont.
  • True Timber, previously confirmed for the final leg of the Triple Crown, spiked a fever and will be forced to miss the race.
  • Gormley, ninth last out in the Kentucky Derby, worked in blinkers for the first time at Santa Anita on June 3 and remains under consideration for the Belmont Stakes.
  • Trainer John Shirreffs said Gormley will be flown from California to New York on June 7 if he runs in the Belmont Stakes.
  • Preakness seventh-place finisher Conquest Mo Money exited a June 2 workout at the Fair Hill Training Center with a soft tissue injury and will not compete as planned in the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes on the Belmont undercard.