2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup: Blame leads field of eight

A look at the field for Saturday's Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

• Blame looks to take his final step towards the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday when he faces seven other rivals at Belmont Park.  Blame has been on a roll since finishing second in last year's Super Derby; he comes in with five straight wins and working like a freight train in the mornings.  Can't see him losing unless he tosses in a clunker.
• Rail Trip, now trained by Richard Dutrow, will make his first career start on dirt after spending his entire career in Southern California under the training of Ron Ellis.  The mile and a quarter distance is right up his alley and he should like the pace situation in this race as there is not a ton of speed on the front end.
• Fly Down faces older horses for the first time in his career after narrowly missing out on a big win in the Travers.  He riffled off a sizzling 46 and 2 work on the Saratoga training track on Saturday, the fastest of 25 to work that distance that morning.  It looks like Zito has him ready to run.
• All of Hold Me Back's four career wins have come over synthetic surfaces but he's shown some ability on dirt in the past, most notably a 2nd to Summer Bird in last year's Travers.  That Travers, however, was over a sloppy track.
• Haynesfield appears to be the likely early leader of this field although he's coming in off of a poor performance in the Whitney that saw him break through the gate prior to the start.  He would appear to be eligible for significant improvement if he can settle down in the gate on Saturday.
• Dry Martini has run his last two races on the lawn where's he's run up the track both times.  A switch back to dirt should help him out considerably but he seems to be a notch below the rest of this field in terms of class.
• Tranquil Manner ran reasonably well in the Woodward and has come into his own in his last two races.  He probably needs to take another step forward in this race to come out on top but he might make an good pick in the exacta or tri.
• Mythical Power was second to Quality Road in the Woodward but the extra 1/8th of a mile seems like it might be a bit of a stretch for him in this spot.

Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup
Belmont Park
1 ¼ miles
Three year olds and up
Purse: $750,000
Post-time: 5:48 EDT