Thursday Morning Notes - May 18

- Barclay Tagg did it again, picking up his 4th consecutive winner at Belmont on Wednesday in a rather bizarre running of the Thirty Flags Stakes. Originally scheduled for the turf, the switch to the main track resulted in the scratches of every horse in the main body of the race, except for Samsincharge. The main-track-only’s comprised four of the five runners, and one of them would MTO his way to some black type that some might say he doesn't deserve.

Or North American black type, anyway. Tagg’s entry, La Chiflota (Hussonet), is actually a Grade 1 winner in Chile. His first two tries here were fair, and he deserved to be the 4th choice at 9-2. But this barn is on fire now, and three winners prior to La Chiflota returned 8-1, 5-1, and 2-1. Tagg has two entrants for Thursday – Mikethemoondog (6-1) in the 2nd, and Megatrend, the morning line favorite in the 3rd.

- The backers of Survivalist (Danzig), last year’s Gotham winner, didn’t give up hope today. The colt was pounded at the windows in his first two races as a four-year old, but he could do no better than second. He was 9-2 morning line in Wednesday’s feature, but got slammed again, on the nose down to 2-1, and drifting up to 5-2 co-favoritism at the end. He parlayed a perfect Edgar Prado ride behind 11-1 Lieutenant Danz into a gritty win, holding off Darley’s Backchat by a half; final sixteenth in 6.43 seconds. The runner-up took all the late money, getting hit from 9-2 to 7-2 late.

- Barbaro’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, own his two-year old half brother Man in Havana (Quiet American), and a weanling full brother.