Twin Creeks Racing Stables’Red Rifle, a long-winded son of Giant’s Causeway , may fire his best shot June 5 in the $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup Invitational Stakes. The two-mile Gold Cup, run on the Widener Turf Course the day before the six grade I-race card on Belmont Stakes day at Belmont Park, has drawn a field of 10.
It won’t be easy for Red Rifle, but he’s shown he can rate on the front end in shorter races on both dirt and turf. Last fall, going 1 1/2 miles on the turf at Keeneland, Red Rifle missed by a half-length after setting all the pace in the 12-furlong Sycamore Stakes (gr. IIIT). He won Belmont’s Yankee Affair Stakes at the same distance in September.
Tested on the main track in 2015, he comes to the Gold Cup off a second-place effort to Effinex in the 10-furlong Excelsior Stakes (gr. III) April 25 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
BloodHorse by Evan Hammonds 6-3-15 –click here to read rest of article
