Belmont Babies for Saturday

- Wow, Phantom Income was a phantom to the rest of the field, drawing away with absolute ease from Crosswalk, the 3-4 favorite who was working hard futilely as the winner drew away to win by ten! That's two extremely impressive winners for Richard Violette and Klaravich Stables with horses plucked out of the Ocala juvenile sale in March (Fed Watcher being the other).

And guess what, they have another one in the second on Saturday in Globalization. This son of the $30,000 sire Touch Gold (10% with debut runners) went for $250,000 at the sale after working in 10.2, and then in 10.1. Here's a colt with some interesting breeding. He's inbred 4x4 to the great racemare and broodmare Busanda, through Buckpasser and a winless half-sister named Navsup; and is also inbred to Northern Dancer 4x4x4. Globalization is out of a Polish Navy mare, and is a half-brother to Minister Margaret, a champion in Puerto Rico who, according to Pedigree Query, won 33 out of 64 lifetime races.

Tale of Ekati, the 5-2 morning line favorite, goes for Barclay Tagg, who won last week with According to Plan ($19.00), his only prior first time two-year old at this meeting. He's by the excellent first-out sire Tale of the Cat, out of a Sunday Silence half-sister to the champion Sky Beauty. That one's dam, the champion sprinter Gold Beauty, is the third dam of Tale of Ekati, so this is the talented family of Dayjur, Pleasant Home, and Pine Island.

Bill Mott, who as we mentioned yesterday has a very good record with this sort at this track, has Lumen, a son of Johannesburg who also comes out of that Ocala sale. He sold for $200,000 after working 10.1 and 21.1, man! Johannesburg is 11% with first-time starters, and Lumen is out of Phone Trick mare; his second dam is the Grade 1 winner Adored.

Pletcher has Flying Dismount, a son of the first-year sire Proud Citizen, standing for $12,500 at Airdrie. Proud Citizen has three winners from 14 starters thus far. What I find interesting about this stallion's pedigree is that his 4th dam is Arctic Dancer, a full sister to Northern Dancer. So I'm interested to see how matings that involve adding the great stallion himself do. This one is out of a stakes winning mare by Regal Classic, so her third sire is Northern Dancer; so he's inbred 4x4 to ND and his sis.

Anakim is a son of Giant's Causeway (10%) making his debut for John Kimmel, just two for 31 with first-time juveniles over the last two years.

Globalization seems the obvious choice, but the bettors may catch on after letting Phantom Income go off at 9-2! Pletcher's colt is 5-1 morning line, has the usual long string of steady, though in this case moderate, works over the Saratoga training track, and is by a stallion enjoying some early success. You can sometimes catch a price with the Toddster with these first-timers when Johnny V is out of town. Alan Garcia rides, and I'm sure he'd like to impress. I'd take a shot if he's really 5-1 or close to it, and box him with Globalization.