• Undefeated GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Justify (Scat Daddy) returned to the racetrack at Churchill Downs Thursday morning for a one-mile jog following his half-mile breeze in :46.80 Tuesday as he continued training for the 1 1/2-mile GI Belmont S. June 9. “It was a really good first day back at the track,” trainer Bob Baffert's assistant Jimmy Barnes said. “He was pretty strong out there and full of himself. It was exactly what we wanted to see after his breeze Tuesday.”
• Preakness runner-up Bravazo (Awesome Again) breezed one mile in 1:42.60 with exercise rider Danielle Rosier aboard for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. The Calumet Farm homebred worked through eighth-mile splits of :13.20, :25.60, :38.20, :50.60, 1:03.40, 1:16.60 and 1:30 before completing a 1 1/8-mile gallop out in 1:58, according to Churchill Downs clocker John Nichols. “I was very pleased with the work,” Lukas said. “With workouts, I'm not really looking at the time but rather how they're doing it. He did everything we asked. You have to be a tough horse to compete in the Triple Crown series and I think we have a tough horse.”
• The Belmont S. field could possibly be comprised of the following 11 horses: Bandua (The Factor), Blended Citizen (Proud Citizen), Bravazo, Free Drop Billy (Union Rags), Gronkowski (Lonhro {Aus}), Hofburg (Tapit), Justify, Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy), Restoring Hope (Giant's Causeway), Tenfold (Curlin) and Vino Rosso (Curlin).
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