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ELMONT, N.Y. – Millionaire stablemates Disco Partner and Pure Sensation will certainly attract most of the mutuel attention in Saturday’s $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational, but the six-furlong race may not be a two-horse affair.

Proforma, an improving 4-year-old gelding, enters the Belmont Turf Sprint off a head victory under Joe Bravo in the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint, a career-best performance.

“I think he certainly fits off his last race,” trainer Michael Stidham said Thursday. “The horse is definitely on the improve and Bravo has gotten to know him real well. I think he’s in there with a big shot.”

Stidham said it took him awhile to determine that turf was Proforma’s preferred surface. He finished third in the Wolf Hill Stakes at Monmouth on turf on July 29, but Stidham concluded the 5 1/2 furlongs was too short for him.

“They sprinted away from him early and he was the only horse to make up ground in the end,” Stidham said. “Six to 6 1/2 furlongs really suits him well.”

Disco Partner won the Belmont Turf Sprint last year and Pure Sensation won the inaugural running in 2016. The two horses – owned by and bred by Patricia and Frank Generazio and trained by Christophe Clement – have combined to win 20 of 54 starts with 9 seconds and 10 thirds.

Disco Partner is at less than his best on ground less than firm, and the Belmont turf has not been firm all meet. He finished third in the Grade 3 Troy on soft turf at Saratoga on Aug. 5.

“You could see it,” Clement said. “He’s traveling very well on the bridle, and when he asked him he spins his wheels. He tried hard and he came back in good shape.”

Pure Sensation, who is 2 for 4 at Belmont, is a freak over the turf course at Parx Racing, where he is 5 for 6 including a victory in the Grade 3 Turf Monster over Vision Perfect and Rainbow Heir in his most recent start.

“Another where you could physically see him trying,” Clement said. “He was more or less beaten coming out of the turn, and he tried again and he won. I guess he must love that place.”

With regular rider Kendrick Carmouche out with an injury, Jose Ortiz has the call on Pure Sensation, who breaks from post 5.

Pocket Change, Blind Ambition, Simon Bar Sinister, and Maniacal complete the seven-horse field.

KEY CONTENDERS

Proforma, by Munnings
Last 3 Beyers: 94-91-87
◗ Has fired two bullet workouts over the synthetic surface at Fair Hill since his last race.

Pure Sensation, by Zensational
Last 3 Beyers: 98-88-99
◗ Game effort winning the Turf Monster last out and has speed to be a factor from outset.
◗ May have to deal with some pressure from Pocket Change.

Disco Partner, by Disco Rico
Last 3 Beyers: 92-97-103
◗ The ultimate horse for course with eight wins from 13 starts here.
◗ Could be compromised if the turf is good to yielding.

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ELMONT, N.Y. – Jason Servis has three horses he’d like to run in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and another horse he plans to run in Saturday’s $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational. Yet the trainer’s depth in that category is such that Servis also has contenders in two of the three turf sprints carded for Friday’s nine-race card at Belmont Park.

In race 3, a second-level allowance/optional $62,500 claiming race at seven furlongs, Servis has the coupled entry of Fig Jelly and Dowse’s Beach. In race 8, a starter allowance scheduled for six furlongs, Servis sends out recent winner McErin.

Fig Jelly, a 3-year-old gelding by Forestry, was bought by a group led by Michael Dubb after he finished second in a race at Presque Isle Downs in May. Fig Jelly won a first-level allowance race at Belmont in July, then finished second to World of Trouble in the Quick Call Stakes at Saratoga in August. World of Trouble came back to win the Allied Forces Stakes here by 5 3/4 lengths in early September and is one of those three horses Servis would like to run in the BC Turf Sprint.

Servis said he was “thrilled” to see Fig Jelly run second to World of Trouble in the Quick Call. Fig Jelly came out of that Aug. 8 race with a temperature but has had ample time to recover.

Servis said the seven furlongs on Friday “should be okay” for Fig Jelly, who, Servis noted, raced on very soft turf in the Quick Call. The turf courses at Belmont this fall have yet to be firm.

Dowse’s Beach, a 7-year-old gelding who is in for the optional $62,500 claiming price, looks like he could be part of the pace, along with Blessed Halo. Dowse’s Beach is coming off a victory in a $25,000 claimer.

The main threat to Fig Jelly would appear to be Stolen Pistol, a New York-bred who was fifth in the Quick Call Stakes but came back to win an open-company first-level allowance race going 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 27.

In race 8, a starter allowance for horses who have started for a tag of $50,000 or less, McErin enters off a win for $40,000 at Saratoga on Sept. 3. He won that race by 6 1/4 lengths, earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

That victory came on the front end. He had been beaten two lengths in a first-level allowance on July 30 at Saratoga in which he sat off the pace.

“We wanted to let him settle in the one-other-than,” Servis said. “He got beat a couple of lengths. I guess he made the lead – that was the difference. He got in front and got a big heart.”

McErin has the outside draw, which should give jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. options, especially with other speed in the field.

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Mind Your Biscuits is so versatile that he could be a major player in three Breeders’ Cup races, ranging from the 1 1/4-mile Classic to the Dirt Mile to the six-furlong Sprint.

After Mind Your Biscuits won the 1 1/8-mile Lukas Classic last Saturday at Churchill Downs, trainer and co-owner Chad Summers now must decide whether to stretch him out even farther in the $6 million Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs or to cut him back in distance.

Summers this week was weighing the pros and cons of each race. He seemed inclined to try the Classic but wanted to consider every possible factor before committing.

“I want to watch the preps,” Summers said, noting that top sprinters Roy H and Limousine Liberal were scheduled to run this weekend. “And I want to see if Roaring Lion,” Summers added, referring to the star European colt who is an outside possibility for the Classic, “goes there.

“The pace of the Dirt Mile and Sprint might be a disadvantage to us. The Classic should have a more honest pace. The one horse I don’t want to run against is Imperial Hint,” he said, referring to the likely Sprint favorite. “He’s a freak.”

The biggest negative regarding the Classic, Summers said, “is the $150,000 entry fee.”

“He didn’t win a Win and You’re In race, so if you’re not in the top four, you lose money.”

The reward may well outweigh the risk. First prize in the Classic is $3.3 million, and the Classic is the only chance Mind Your Biscuits will have to run 1 1/4 miles before his scheduled retirement to begin stud duty next year in Japan at co-owner Shadai Farm. Mind Your Biscuits already has banked $4,279,566.

Mind Your Biscuits, 5, is currently the co-third choice at 8-1 on the Classic ante-post line set by Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper.

The Lukas Classic was chosen as a prep to see if Mind Your Biscuits liked the track, and jockey Tyler Gaffalione was instructed by Summers to let Mind Your Biscuits gallop out an additional furlong after the race. As dress rehearsals go, it could not have been better. Mind Your Biscuits got a Beyer Speed Figure of 108.

“I think the performance that night justified his ability to go two turns,” Summers said. “Part of the strategy was making sure he had a good gallop-out. The way he did, it leaves me with a lot of confidence he can go a mile and a quarter.”

Summers also is hoping that shipping to Churchill Downs, and remaining there through the Breeders’ Cup, will be an edge.

“We’re trying to turn it into a home-court advantage,” he said.

It’s rare to find a horse as effective at as many distances as Mind Your Biscuits. In his 24 starts, he twice has won the six-furlong Dubai Golden Shaheen, was second in both the Met Mile (which he lost by a nose) and the Cigar Mile, and was second in the nine-furlong Whitney prior to the Lukas Classic. At the past two Breeders’ Cups, he was second (2016) and third (2017) in the Sprint. If he were to win the Classic, he would have won Grade 1 or Group 1 races ranging from six furlongs to 1 1/4 miles in the same calendar year.

What other older runners have had that range of success in top races on dirt in the same year over the past 50 years?

Forego won graded stakes from seven furlongs to two miles in 1974 and from seven furlongs to 1 1/2 miles in 1975. The brief list also includes Ack Ack, who in 1971 won stakes from 5 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, and Precisionist, who won the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint and the 10-furlong Strub in 1985.

Dr. Fager’s celebrated 1968 Horse of the Year campaign had dirt wins ranging from seven furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, as did Spectacular Bid in 1980, Ghostzapper in 2004, and Black Tie Affair, whose 1991 season culminated with a win the Classic, run that year at Churchill Downs.

In other Classic developments:

◗ Seeking the Soul, who won the Ack Ack at Churchill Downs on Saturday, will join the field, trainer Dallas Stewart said Wednesday. Seeking the Soul won the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs last fall.

“He’s a great horse, ran great, loves the track. We’re looking at the Classic,” Stewart said. “He’s won a Grade 1 over the track already. I think that’s what we’re doing.”

◗ A majority interest in Axelrod, most recently second in the Pennsylvania Derby, has been sold to Phoenix Thoroughbreds by original owner Slam Dunk Racing, which will retain a minority interest in the colt, according to Nick Cosato, who heads the Slam Dunk partnership.

Going forward, Axelrod will be managed by Phoenix and race in Phoenix’s colors, Cosato said.

Axelrod won the Indiana Derby and Smarty Jones prior to the Pennsylvania Derby. He is based at Santa Anita with trainer Michael McCarthy, who said recently that Axelrod has been under consideration for several races, including the Classic.

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They were stabled across the street from each other in New Jersey. They began their racing careers in the same race in Delaware. They each won graded stakes in New York.

Saturday, by running in Grade 1 stakes in different states, Call Paul and Mind Control hope to punch their tickets for a reunion of sorts in Kentucky in next month’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.

Call Paul, unbeaten in two starts, drew post 5 in a field of 10 horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $500,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont. Mind Control, a winner of 2 of 3 starts, drew post 13 in a field of 14 entered Wednesday for Saturday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Both are Win and You’re In races for the Juvenile.

Call Paul, trained by Jason Servis, and Mind Control, trained by Greg Sacco, were stabled across the road from each other at Monmouth beginning in May. When a maiden race failed to fill at Monmouth in early summer, both colts wound up in the same 5 1/2-furlong maiden race July 5 at Delaware Park.

Servis said he chose the race in part because Call Paul was Delaware-certified – meaning he spent at least 90 days on a Delaware farm as a weanling or yearling – and thus was eligible to run for 25 percent more money. Servis also thought it would be an easy race.

“Whatever it was, it was no pressure,” Servis said. “I liked the fact we got to [ship] him somewhere. I thought it was a softer spot, and if you break your maiden, you can then wind up in a stakes.”

Sacco said he chose to run Mind Control at Delaware because a race at Monmouth had failed to fill and he, too, thought it would be a good starting point for a horse Sacco said “wasn’t cranked to the moon.”

Sacco remembers being in the paddock when his 17-year-old son Will saw the early odds.

“He said ‘Dad, I think we’re in trouble, Jason’s horse is 1-5,’ ”Greg Sacco said.

Mind Control broke on top and was soon tackled by Call Paul. The two were heads apart through a half-mile in 46.30 seconds with Call Paul, on the outside, drawing clear inside the final sixteenth to win by 2 1/4 lengths.

“We were disappointed we got beat; we realized we got beat by a nice colt,” Sacco said.

On Aug. 12, Mind Control and Call Paul were again in the entries. Mind Control cruised to a three-length maiden victory at Monmouth Park. About 3 1/2 hours later, Call Paul scored a one-length victory in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.

Servis “said he watched us win, and we were tuned into him,” Sacco said. “We were happy to see him win the race. His horse ran a dynamite race. That put the wheels in motion for us thinking about the Hopeful.”

Sacco was even more bullish on the Hopeful, a Grade 1 seven-furlong race at Saratoga, when he talked to Servis, who said he wasn’t going to run Call Paul there.

In the Hopeful, Mind Control dueled inside of Nitrous, fended that one off as well as even-money favorite Mucho, and won by three-quarters of a length.

Sacco said he was torn where to run Mind Control next, eventually settling on the Breeders’ Futurity, hoping to get the colt some two-turn experience in the 1 1/16-mile race.

“If he runs well and comes out of it good, it makes sense to go to the Juvenile with a head of steam and confidence,” Sacco said.

Last year, Servis won the Champagne with Firenze Fire, beating Good Magic, who would come back and win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Firenze Fire, who had gotten sick after arriving in California, finished eighth in the Juvenile run at Del Mar.

Servis said having eight weeks between the Saratoga Special and the Champagne isn’t ideal, but squeezing another race in between “might have done more harm” than good.

◗ Game Winner and Gunmetal Gray, the 1-2 finishers from last Saturday’s Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita, are both headed to the Juvenile, their connections said out of the race.

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