Tale of Verve to Belmont, 'Moon' to Canada

After a second-place finish in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (gr. I), longshot runner Tale of Verve is headed to Belmont Park for the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) June 6.



Before heading to the airport to catch an 8:30 a.m. flight bound for Kentucky May 17, trainer Dallas Stewart stopped by the Pimlico Race Course barn area to check on his trainee.



"He looked good," Stewart said. "We got him out and gave him a couple of turns (around the shedrow) and grazed him. He's going to go to Belmont tomorrow."



Bred and owned by Charles Fipke, Tale of Verve had one maiden special weight win in his sixth and most-recent start heading into the Preakness, in which he came from last to pass horses in the stretch and finish second, one length ahead of Divining Rod.



"He ran so big yesterday," Stewart said. "He's a tremendous horse."



Stewart-trained horses have now finished second four times in Triple Crown races—39-1 Macho Again (2008) and 28-1 Tale of Verve in the Preakness, and 34-1 Golden Soul (2013) and 37-1 Commanding Curve (2014) in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). Macho Again did not run in the Belmont, while Golden Soul and Commanding Curve each ran ninth.



Of his four Belmont starters, Stewart's best finish came with his first, Dollar Bill, who ran fourth in 2001.



"We're looking forward to getting it done next time," Stewart said. "We think this horse will love a mile and a half."



Danzig Moon, the sixth-place Preakness finisher, stood quietly in his stall Sunday morning, his heavy coughing spells after Saturday's race in the slop having substantially subsided.



"He seems fine," trainer Mark Casse said, as he prepared for a flight back to Canada. "There were a lot of horses coughing in the stakes barn after the race. We scoped him and the vet said he had half the race track in his throat."



Owner John Oxley's son of Malibu Moon   will be off the U.S. Triple Crown trail and ultimately head to Canada with a different Triple Crown in his sights. Casse said Danzig Moon's next start would likely come in the $1 million Queen's Plate at Woodbine July 5, if all goes well.



"We'll regroup," Casse said. "We're going to fire another one at (American Pharoah). We'll try a new bullet next time (in the Belmont Stakes). We're hoping to run Conquest Curlinate in the Belmont. He was just second in the Peter Pan and second in the Illinois Derby. He's a tough horse. We may take a run at him there."



The untimely thunderstorm that arrived moments before the Preakness was Danzig Moon's first experience with wet weather in his seventh career start.



"Somebody asked me just before the race if there was anybody in the field that had any slop form," he said. "I said, 'Yeah, American Pharoah.' He's run on it at Oaklawn (Park) and he just skipped across it. You know what? He's a great horse. Maybe we're going to have a Triple Crown winner."



Carlos Santamaria, assistant to trainer Simon Callaghan, reported Sunday that Arnold Zetcher's Firing Line came out of his seventh-place Preakness finish in good shape.



Santamaria said jockey Gary Stevens had concerns about Firing Line's chances in the Preakness after the Kentucky Derby runner-up left the saddling area to warm up for the race in a driving rain.



"Even when they were warming up, he was looking around, like he was saying, 'What? Are we going to run on this track?' Gary was like, 'Uh-oh, maybe he isn't going to run any good,' " Santamaria said. "At the break, after the stumble, he was pretty much done. He wasn't comfortable on the track.



"There was nothing we could do about it, weather-wise. I'm not disappointed in him. I'm pretty sure he would have run his race if the track was good. If you look at him today, he looks terrific. He's happy. It just wasn't his day. He'll be back."



Firing Line is scheduled to return to Southern California May 18.