Trapp Mountain Wins the Futurity : Stewards Review Tapes, Then Give Colt Belmont Victory

While California waits and hopes for a standout 2-year-old who might prompt visions of grandeur, New York seems to be crawling with precocious juveniles.

First there was Houston, who started like a meteor and since has returned to earth with a temporary case of sore shins. Then at Saratoga, well-bred colts like Easy Goer, Fast Play and Trapp Mountain surfaced not with a bob but like geysers. And Mercedes Won, a $5,700 yearling from the wrong side of the tracks, beat a couple of them in the Hopeful.

When the New York crowd moved from Saratoga to Belmont Park this month, another 2-year-old, Is It True, was added to the lengthening list.

On Sunday, Belmont ran its Futurity for the 99th time. The list of previous winners includes black-type horses such as Man o’War, Citation, Native Dancer, Nashua, Bold Ruler, Secretariat, Affirmed and Swale, and although a $138,800 purse attracted only five starters, interest was keen because two of the runners were Fast Play and Trapp Mountain.

Just as in the Hopeful, when Trapp Mountain had enough bad luck to lose a half-dozen races, the best horse might not have won the Futurity. Trapp Mountain came from off a fast pace to beat Bio by a neck, and Fast Play, who was second in the Hopeful, was clobbered by the winner leaving the gate and crowded by another horse through the stretch and still finished third, beaten by 4 lengths.

The Belmont stewards took five minutes to review the gate incident before they allowed Trapp Mountain’s victory to stand. The son of Cox’s Ridge and the Round Table mare, Play at Home, ran only an average time, 1:23 4/5, but won for the third time in four starts with a running style that gives him the right to go farther.

Trapp Mountain, ridden by Angel Cordero for the first time, paid $7.40 to win as the second betting choice. After the first three, Nature’s Gift and Northern Wolf completed the order of finish.

An assistant starter was holding Trapp Mountain by the left ear when the gate opened. Trapp Mountain hit the side of the door coming out, threw his head up and slammed into Fast Play and jockey Randy Romero on his left.

Fast Play, driven into the horse on his left, Northern Wolf, survived the incident but was left in last place. Trapp Mountain was quickly straightened out by Cordero and settled into third place, behind Nature’s Gift and Northern Wolf going down the backstretch.

Nature’s Gift, under Gary Stevens, ran a half-mile in :44 4/5 and was on the inside, but three rows off the rail, heading into the stretch. Under slight pressure from the charging Trapp’s Mountain, Nature’s Gift came over on Fast Play as he tried to come through on the fence. Fast Play stumbled at the eighth pole and lost all chance.

“It looked like we might get beat, but my horse heard the other horse (Bio) coming and kept going,” Cordero said. “My colt is not an easy horse to ride. He won’t give you anything unless you ask him for it. Some people are saying that Easy Goer is the best 2-year-old around here, but he hasn’t been challenged in his races.”

That challenge for Easy Goer may come in his next start, the Cowdin on Oct. 1. Trapp Mountain won’t be there, however, since his next race is to be the Champagne two weeks later.

Horse Racing Notes

The owners of Alysheba have left all of the options open for their 4-year-old colt, who beat Forty Niner by a neck Saturday in the Woodward Handicap. Alysheba is going to run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5 but before that he could run in the Meadowlands Cup, the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont or a race at Keeneland, or he could go directly into the Breeders’ Cup. . . . The pre-Breeders’ Cup options for Forty Niner are both in New York--the Vosburgh at 7 furlongs at Belmont or the New York Racing Assn. Mile at Aqueduct.

Channel Three, a 2-year-old filly who finished second, but 10 lengths behind Pat Copelan, at Saratoga a month ago, showed up Sunday at Belmont for a rematch in the $116,600 Astarita. Channel Three ran Pat Copelan down in the stretch to win by three-quarters of a length under Carlos Barrera and paid $70. Channel Three ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:17. Stocks Up, undefeated in two races and winner of the Sorrento at Del Mar in his last start, finished fourth in a seven-horse field, 6 lengths behind Channel Three.