Divisidero, Bolo Meet in Deep Belmont Derby

Divisidero will try for a second straight stakes victory on the inner turf at Belmont Park in the $1.25 million Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (gr. IT) July 4, while classic runner Bolo will ship in from the West Coast.

In the deepest field of 3-year-old turf runners assembled in North America this year, Gunpowder Farms’ Divisidero will try to pick up his first grade I victory and add his fourth win in five starts in Saturday’s 1 1/4-mile turf race. The Kitten's Joy   colt will have to earn that top-level victory, as the field includes top runners from throughout the country, as well as a pair of promising international runners.

Trained by Kentucky-based Buff Bradley, Divisidero announced his arrival with a sweeping rally from 11th to win the American Turf Stakes (gr. IIT) May 2 at Churchill Downs. He followed that win with a neck victory over Takeover Target in the Pennine Ridge Stakes May 30 at Belmont.

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence’s Takeover Target will look to improve off that effort, which marked the stakes debut for the Harlan's Holiday colt, who registered clear wins in his first two starts for trainer Chad Brown.

While those two recently put on a show at Belmont, Bolo has been making waves in California since his last season. A Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) starter who is conditioned by Southern California-based trainer Carla Gaines, Bolo entered the Derby off a third-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby (gr. I). He may be even better on turf, where he has won three straight races, including last year’s Eddie Logan Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

A son of Temple City  , Bolo enters off a gate-to-wire allowance victory May 29 on the Santa Anita turf that served as an impressive prep race for Saturday’s test and its seven-figure purse.

"[The Belmont Derby] was on our radar after the [Kentucky] Derby," said Gaines. "We just decided to give the Derby trail a try, obviously, because he had enough points to get in, but in the back of our heads we thought that eventually we'd go back to grass. He's doing very, very well. He had a nice workout the other day and everything looks really, really good."

Off his fast-closing victory in the $500,000 Penn Mile Stakes (gr. IIIT), where he rallied from eighth in midstretch, Richard Santulli’s Force the Pass boasts the highest career earnings to date. The son of Speightstown  , who will be racing beyond a mile for the first time, has won three of five starts and earned $360,084.

Those accomplished U.S. runners will have to contend with a pair of Euorpean-based horses making their U.S. debuts in Aga Khan's homebred Canndal and Juddmonte Farms homebred Postulation, by Harlan’s Holiday. Trained by Mikel Delazngles, Canndal, by Medicean, earned a group II placing in France this year and enters off a third-place finish in the Prix Ridgway. Postulation, who will be starting as a gelding for the first time, won a stakes at the Curragh this season.

The field also includes Klaravich Stables and Lawrence’s Startup Nation, a grade II winner last year who finished third in the Pennine Ridge; Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Granny's Kitten, who finished third in the Penn Mile, and WinStar Farm’s Closing Bell, a son of Tapit   who won a maiden race May 24 at Belmont.

Chad Brown trains Startup Nation and Takeover Target and he believes both will like the added distance.

"They breezed together [June 27] like they have been all along and it was more of the same from them," Brown reported. "It was a steady, easy work. We didn't want to do too much with them and they went perfect. I believe both of those horses should have no problem with a mile and a quarter."