Familiar Faces Go to ‘War’

It just wouldn’t be a Grade I turf marathon without the presence of Phipps Stable’s Imagining (Giant’s Causeway) and West Point Thoroughbreds’s Twilight Eclipse (Purim), and the millionaire veterans will both line up for Saturday’s GI Man o’ War S. at Belmont. The former won this race 12 months ago, and was beaten just a head by eventual champion Main Sequence (Aldebaran) in Saratoga’s GI Sword Dancer S. two starts later in August. Third and seventh behind that standout in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont Sept. 27 and GI Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 1, respectively, he kicked off his 7-year-old season with a fairly close eighth in the GI Gulfstream Park Turf H. Feb. 7. The Shug McGaughey pupil returned to winning ways last time in Gulfstream’s Mar. 28 GII Pan American S.–Twilight Eclipse was third. “His two races this winter were both good,” said McGaughey. “In [the Gulfstream Park Turf] he didn’t break good and got too far out of it, and when he made his run he kind of got blocked and was only beat a couple lengths. I thought his race in the Pan Am was as good a race as he can run.” 

Twilight Eclipse last visited the winner’s circle after Gulfstream’s GII Mac Diarmida S. last February, but checked in 12th after testing very deep waters in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March. He was fourth in the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup June 6, but hasn’t been off the board in six subsequent tries–the first five of which came against Main Sequence. The Tom Albertrani trainee was second by a neck in the GI United Nations S. at Monmouth in July, third in the aforementioned Sword Dancer, second in the Joe Hirsch and third in the BC Turf. He was second yet again to Main Sequence in an attempt at defending his Mac Diarmida title Feb. 21 before his close third in the Pan American. 

Andrew Bentley Stables’s GI Arlington Million upsetter Hardest Core (Hard Spun) adds some intrigue as he makes his first start since finishing eighth in the BC Turf. “We were all surprised when he won the Arlington Million,” said conditioner Edward Graham. “We knew he was doing well, but winning a Grade I was surprising. The Breeders’ Cup didn’t set up for him. He was on the outside and didn’t get a chance to get covered up; we knew right away he wasn’t going to win.” The trainer added, “He seems good [right now]; he’s been in training since January and is training well. We thought it would be good to start him off in the Man o’ War since it’s close to home [at Fair Hill], and then we can go from there.”