Haskell Invitational Handicap : Le Voyageur Is Without ‘Unknown’ Tag Today

The horse from France and the firehouse will no longer be the unknown ingredient, as he was in the Belmont Stakes, when Monmouth Park runs the $500,000 Haskell Invitational Handicap today.

Before the Belmont on June 10, Le Voyageur had never run on dirt or in the United States, and although the 3-year-old colt has blueblood parentage, New York horseplayers logically sent him off at 29-1. Le Voyageur led for more than a mile, then finished third, nine lengths behind winning Easy Goer but only a length behind the favorite, Sunday Silence, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner.

Le Voyageur went back to France after the Belmont, not to return to grass racing, but to train some more on a surface he apparently prefers, a special dirt track at Chantilly.

The plan was to bring Le Voyageur back to the United States in the fall for the Breeders’ Cup at Florida’s Gulfstream Park, but that changed, and Tuesday night, he was back in New York. Today, he’ll run against a good but not exceptional group of 3-year-olds.

Easy Goer, the leader of the division, is staying in New York to run at Saratoga next month in the Whitney Handicap and the Travers, and Sunday Silence, who has been in California since the Belmont, was an upset victim of Prized in his only start, the Swaps at Hollywood Park last Sunday.

Ten horses are entered in the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, with King Glorious, winner of seven of eight races and first in the Ohio Derby in his last start, listed as the 8-5 favorite. Next comes Music Merci at 3-1 and then it’s Le Voyageur at 5-1. Rounding out the field are Shy Tom, Mercedes Won, Halo Hansom, Rampart Road, Bio, Seattle Glow and Arcadia Falls.

Since making the 2 1/2-hour van ride from John F. Kennedy airport to Monmouth on the New Jersey shore, Le Voyageur has been stabled in a makeshift quarantine section of the track’s firehouse, at the entrance road to the backstretch area.

To make Le Voyageur’s entourage feel at home, a French flag has joined the American flag that flies over the structure. For company, Le Voyageur has Beyond Relief, another French traveler trained by Patrick-Louis Biancone. Beyond Relief will run here today in a minor stake.

After Le Voyageur’s blood sample was flown to a laboratory in Iowa and approved, the Kentucky-bred son of two champions, Seattle Slew and Davona Dale, was allowed to gallop on the track between races Thursday. Randy Romero, the New York jockey who rode him in the Belmont for the first time, has the mount again today. Romero won the 1982 Haskell with Wavering Monarch.

“The colt has acclimated well,” Biancone said. “After his earlier plane trip, he was a little tired, but as soon as he got here this time, he was playing around and he feels good. Now he just has to prove something on the track.”

Biancone, 38, proved something to Americans in 1983 when he brought over All Along, the filly who had won the Arc de Triomphe. She whipped males in major races in New York, Toronto and Washington, D.C., and the whirlwind fall earned her the title of North America’s horse of the year.

Running on soft grass courses in France, Le Voyageur was able to beat three other maidens for his only victory in six starts, but then came his extraordinary performance in the Belmont.

“Before that, I kept telling my owners that this horse could be a champion, and he kept losing races,” Biancone said. “I was looking very stupid.

“I did a lot of thinking about which race to run him in if I shipped him to the United States. I knew that the (1 1/2-mile) Belmont track is the biggest in the country, and I thought that that would benefit him. When you ship all the way over to another country, you want to try for the best, and that’s why I picked the Belmont.”

Le Voyageur was bred by Calumet Farm and bought by Betty Marcus, the wife of the man who once headed the company that makes Q-Tips, for $1.5 million at a Saratoga yearling auction. The Marcuses later sold a 50% interest in the colt to Calumet.

Monmouth’s track is a half-mile shorter in circumference than Belmont Park, and the Haskell is three-eighths of a mile shorter than the Belmont Stakes. Another difference for Le Voyageur today is that he probably won’t be running on the lead as he did in the Belmont. That distinction is being conceded to King Glorious, the speedy California-bred who has been first from the gate in all of his races.

Since his Ohio Derby win at Thistledown on June 17, King Glorious has had several solid workouts over the Monmouth track, the last three being the fastest for the distance on the days he ran them. King Glorious will carry high weight of 123 pounds, nine more than Le Voyageur.

Horse Racing Notes

Chris McCarron rides King Glorious again. . . . Gary Stevens rides Music Merci, who hasn’t finished first since the San Rafael at Santa Anita in February, but won the Illinois Derby on a foul May 27. . . . Music Merci carries 120 pounds, second to King Glorious in the weights.

Other than Le Voyageur, the only Haskell starter to have run in a Triple Crown race is Shy Tom, who was 10th in the Kentucky Derby. . . . Music Merci breaks from the No. 2 post, Le Voyageur from No. 5 and King Glorious from No. 7. . . . Julie Krone, Monmouth’s leading rider, is a new rider aboard Shy Tom.