By Joe Bianca
It didn't seem like an especially important result at the time when Paul Pompa Jr.'s homebred Send It In (Big Brown) ran down Chilean import Tu Brutus (Chi) (Scat Daddy) by a half-length in the GIII Excelsior S. Apr. 8 at Aqueduct, but once it was revealed that the race earned a 119 Beyer Speed Figure, the race took on much greater significance. Now, those two runners will do battle once again, along with six other challengers, in the 12-furlong GII Brooklyn S. Saturday at Belmont.
Send It In, who hasn't been out of the trifecta since August of 2015, captured the New York-bred Alex M. Robb S. and Haynesfield S. over the winter at the Big A, and was third after a poor start in the open Stymie S. before his big-figure score. The Excelsior was Send It In's first try at 1 1/4 miles, and he'll have to traverse another quarter-mile in the Brooklyn.
“We feel he's well-suited to the 1 1/2 miles,” trainer Todd Pletcher told the NYRA notes team. “He's the kind of horse that keeps plugging away, and he continues to improve. He's got the right kind of disposition for a horse that wants to go a distance of ground; he settles in well and he's not overly aggressive.”
Unlike Send It In, Tu Brutus has run since the Excelsior, and the chestnut went a long way toward legitimizing the race's Beyer with an 11-length romp in the Flat Out S. going 1 3/8 miles on this oval May 7. He has returned to breeze four times since that effort, including a bullet five-furlong spin over the local training surface in 1:02 3/5 (1/5) May 30. Trainer Gary Contessa says that Tu Brutus is a fitter horse to face Send It In this time around.
“I really wanted him to have one under his belt before I ran him in the Excelsior, so my feeling was he was maybe 75-80% ready and boy, he ran his eyeballs out,” Contessa
told the TDN last month. “I really think that my horse is a better horse than he was when he ran in the Excelsior.”If the two favorites, who will break side-by-side, are to encounter an upsetter, it's likely to be one from a trio of tri-state based runners.
Jump Sucker Stable and Oak Bluff Stables' Governor Malibu (Malibu Moon) finished second in both the GII Peter Pan S. and GII Jim Dandy S. last year, but has gone winless in four straight, and runs back on just 12 days rest after running third in the New York-bred Commentator S. here May 29.
Dennis Drazin's Sunny Ridge (Holy Bull), second in the 2015 GI Champagne S. and a winner of the GIII Withers S. last winter, knocked off Send It In in the Stymie before running a dull sixth in the sloppy GII Charles Town Classic last out Apr. 22.
War Story (Northern Afleet), who crushed Sunny Ridge en route to earning a 106 Beyer in the Queens County S. Dec. 17 at Aqueduct, was not disgraced when fifth behind champion Arrogate (Unbridled's Song) in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and filled the same slot in the GIII Fred S. before checked in a close third in the Charles Town Classic.
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