More than 60 grass races have been washed onto the main track in just over eight weeks of racing at Belmont amid the one of the rainiest springs in Long Island annals, and it may not to get better any time soon. Saturday's G2 New York for older turf fillies could be the only race that stays on the grass in the next week (Friday's races have already been taken off), and seems sure to be run under boggy conditions. Tomorrow's supposed to be drier, but here's the long-range forecast from weather.com:
Thursday 6/18: Rain
Friday 6/19 Cloudy
Saturday 6/20: Thundershowers
Sunday 6/21: Showers
Monday 6/22: Showers
Tuesday 6/23: Scattered Showers
Wednesday 6/24: Thunderstorms
Thursday 6/25: Isloated Thunderstorms
Friday 6/26: Scattered Thunderstorms
In the meantime, it's been tough to play Belmont lately (even if the signal hadn't been cut off to Nassau County residents, the topic of the Saturday column -- feel free to comment on it here) between the short fields and sometimes unpredictable decisions regarding which races have been taken off the grass.
One exceptional performance, however, came on Wednesday's relatively dry (technically "good") main track when Rollers won a N2x allowance by seven lengths with six furlongs in 1:08.18, good for a Beyer Speed Figure of 107. Rollers won the $250k Gallant Bob last year and was second to Ikigai in the G3 Mr. Prospector this winter. The 4-year-old Stormy Atlantic colt, a New York-bred, races for Lael Stables and is trained by Barclay Tagg.
--Here's Yeats winning his fourth straight Ascot Gold Cup earlier today:
