Afleet Alex Is Center of Attention

Breeders’ Cup officials, anxious to beef up their eight-race, $14-million program at Belmont Park later this month, will be more attuned to a workout this morning than to any of the prep races being run the rest of the weekend.

Unraced since winning the Belmont Stakes in June, and idle after a screw was inserted in his leg to repair a hairline fracture in late July, Afleet Alex is scheduled for his second workout today at Belmont. The colt’s trainer, Tim Ritchey, says there is a 50-50 chance that the horse will run in the $4-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Oct. 29.

There’s little wiggle room for this. Ritchey needs another encouraging workout, and then he must find a prep race -- in Delaware, Kentucky or New York -- next weekend to ready Afleet Alex for the 1 1/4 -mile Classic.

In Afleet Alex’s first workout since the surgery, he went five furlongs a week ago in a bristling 59 4/5 seconds.

“I was surprised the way he did that,” Ritchey said. “When he came back, he wasn’t blowing any harder than he does when he gallops.”

Three older horses -- Saint Liam, Borrego and Rock Hard Ten -- will be waiting for Afleet Alex if he runs in the Classic, which hasn’t been won by a 3-year-old since Tiznow in 2000. All three have successfully completed their preps and appear to be peaking for the Breeders’ Cup.

They are all contenders for horse of the year, and Afleet Alex, winner of the Preakness and Arkansas Derby besides the Belmont, might be another candidate.

“If he gets to the Classic and runs a very good race, he would have a very good chance for horse of the year,” Ritchey said. “If he doesn’t, that would be a different story.”

Ritchey would also like to see how Afleet Alex fares on grass, and if he doesn’t feel he’s up to 1 1/4 miles, he might run him in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, a turf race.

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Singletary, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, will have his final tuneup Saturday at Santa Anita in the $250,000 Oak Tree Mile. Singletary ran third, but was beaten by only a head, in last year’s Oak Tree. He has won only one of four starts since his 16-1 upset in the Breeders’ Cup, and was third in the Eddie Read Handicap at Del Mar in his last race.

Buckland Manor, second to Musical Chimes in last year’s Oak Tree Mile, is one of six horses running Saturday. Also in the field is Designed For Luck, who because of an ankle injury hasn’t run since he won the Bill Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park in May 2004.

Another race at Santa Anita on Saturday is the $250,000 Ancient Title, which has a lackluster field. Two of the nominees for the race, Greg’s Gold and Roi Charmant, are injured, and two others -- Pico Central and Woke Up Dreamin -- have been retired.

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Problems continue to pile up for the cash-strapped New York Racing Assn., which conducts racing at Belmont, Saratoga and Aqueduct. A mutuel clerk has been accused of punching out $30,000 in tickets without putting any money in his cash drawer, and the company’s chief financial officer, hired two months ago, has resigned.... Braulio Baeza, the retired Hall of Fame jockey who has been indicted in connection with charges that he allegedly allowed several New York jockeys to ride despite being overweight, pleaded not guilty Thursday. NYRA fired Baeza as assistant clerk of scales after he was indicted.