Saint Liam Has an Easy Trip in Woodward Stakes

Jerry Bailey, who rode Saint Liam to a two-length win in the $490,000 Woodward Stakes on Saturday at Belmont Park, said his horse could have won under any conditions.

“I don’t think he needed the rabbits,” Bailey said. “This was as easy a race as you could ever expect to win.”

Saint Liam’s trainer, Rick Dutrow, entered two second-rate horses, Show Boot and Crafty Player, to soften up Commentator in the early stages of the 1 1/8 -mile race, and while they did their job, it appeared at the finish that Saint Liam was simply the best horse. It was trainer Nick Zito’s second horse, Sir Shackleton, who finished second. Zito’s best chance, Commentator, was third, beaten by 14 1/2 lengths.

“I knew I had [Commentator] when we went into the far turn,” said Bailey, who replaced Edgar Prado on Saint Liam after he had finished second to Commentator in the Whitney Handicap last month.

Saint Liam, who finished second to Ghostzapper in last year’s Woodward, probably won’t run again until the Breeders’ Cup Classic, also at Belmont, on Oct. 29. Saint Liam, timed in 1:49, paid $2.80. Show Boot finished fourth and Crafty Player was fifth as the scratch of Shaniko reduced the Woodward to five horses.

There were three other Grade I stakes at Belmont. Gary Stevens, who rode Commentator, won the $245,000 Gazelle with the Zito-trained In The Gold, and finished second with Asi Siempre as Luas Line won the $260,000 Garden City Stakes. Better Talk Now, winner of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, won the $500,000 Man o’War by a neck over King’s Drama. Relaxed Gesture was third, another half a length back.

Leave Me Alone, who had won the Test at Saratoga as In The Gold finished third, beaten by 8 1/2 lengths, was 2 1/4 lengths behind this time. In The Gold paid $5.90.

“My filly didn’t have the same turn of foot today,” said Eric Kruljac, who shipped Leave Me Alone to Belmont from Santa Anita. “It was a different track, and my filly was [hard to handle] in the holding barn before this race. [Jockey Kent Desormeaux] said that the track was heavy and laboring. She plugged away to the eighth pole, but she couldn’t answer Zito’s horse.”

Luas Line, an Irish import, was ridden by John Velazquez in her first U.S. start. Paying $5.90, she won by 1 1/2 lengths, setting a stakes record with a 1 1/8 -mile grass clocking of 1:45 3/5 . Luas Line ducked some low-flying wild geese in the stretch en route to victory.

Better Talk Now, ridden by Ramon Dominguez, paid $8.10.

This year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf should be more competitive, according to Graham Motion, the trainer of Better Talk Now. “More Europeans will be coming,” he said.