5/23/19
Unbeaten Fog of War heads Belmont Park’s Paradise Creek
By New York Hot List Staff
Fog of War, who was unbeaten in two starts as a 2-year-old, makes his 2019 debut in the $100,000 Paradise Creek, which is scheduled to be run at seven-furlongs on the outer Widener turf course.
The Chad Brown runner won his debut at Saratoga in August in a turf sprint against the future graded stakes winner Current and followed that with a Grade 1 win in the Summer Stakes.
This race is named in honor of Paradise Creek, the 1994 Eclipse Award winning Male Turf horse. In his career, the Bill Mott trainee won four Grade 1 races and accumulated career earnings of $3,401,416, which was quite a large total 25 years ago.
Installed as the 8-5 morning line favorite, Fog of War is part of a field of eight that includes three other horses that have raced in graded stakes company, two that were on the Kentucky Derby trail, and one who was in the Breeders’ Cup.
Second choice at 3-1 is the Mott trainee Mucho, who last year was second in the Hopeful (G1) behind Mind Control. After running fourth in the Bay Shore (G3) in April, Mucho began training him for his turf debut. His last two breezes have been on the grass at Belmont Park.
Preakness winning trainer Mark Casse has switched stakes winner Strike Silver (6-1) from the dirt where he ran second in the Sanford (G3) at Saratoga last summer.
“I thought that he was a nice horse on the dirt but thought that the turf would move him up,” Casse said. “I didn’t feel that he was as good as some of our other horses, so we gave him a shot on the turf. Last time at Keeneland, it seemed like he didn’t really have running on his mind but since then he’s trained well. When you have a 3-year-old that’s already won a stake there aren’t a whole lot of options and sometimes you end up running in races that aren’t exactly what you’re looking for. I prefer to stay with straight three-year-olds this time of year.”
The Paradise Creek is carded as race 9 out of 10 with post time scheduled for 5:51 pm. For complete analysis of the race and the rest of the card, look for the New York Hot List picks on this website.
This weekend’s Cross Country Pick 5 features races from only Monmouth Park and Belmont Park with the Paradise Creek as the fourth leg. With two races from the Jersey Shore track and Belmont Park last Sunday, the wager paid more than $17,000. In 2019, this wager has only twice produced a payout of less than $1,000.
Leg A: Monmouth – Race 9 – G3 Salvator Mile (4:31 pm)
Leg B: Monmouth – Race 10 (5:02 pm)
Leg C: Monmouth – Race 11 – G2 Monmouth (5:32 pm)
Leg D: Belmont – Race 9 – Paradise Creek (5:51 pm)
Leg E: Belmont – Race 10 (6:24 pm)