Met Mile: Divine Park steps up

The 115th running may not have drawn the deepest field in the history of the Met Mile and this will not be remembered as race for the 2008 highlight reel, but both Divine Park, the winner while second choice in the betting, and Commentator, the defeated 6-5 favorite, lived up to the stature of the most prestigious one-mile race run anywhere in the nation on Monday at Belmont Park. The others … well, not so much.

The race played out exactly as it appeared on paper, boiling down to two fastest milers among nine starters though a very fresh Commentator, who had not run since March 8, set the table for the closing Divine Park with a stirring if ultimately suicidal -- :22.48, :44.52, 1:09.61 – for the first six furlongs, fractions resulting from early and late bids by the oddly ridden (Javier Castellano) First Defense, both of which were repelled. Divine Park’s late rally beneath Alan Garcia carried him to a two-length advantage at the wire after very slow 27.30-second final quarter-mile. The running time: 1:36.91.

Divine Park is a developing force at a distance that is seldom run on a meaningful level, taking the Grade 1 Met on the heels of an impressive effort in the Grade 3 Westchester on the Belmont meeting’s opening day. Having won the Withers at Aqueduct at age three, Divine Park is not undefeated in three starts at a mile and has five wins from seven career starts.


Brown said to be on the mend


All concerned with access to Big Brown showed expressed optimism on Monday that the Derby and Preakness winner’s tender left hoof in on the mend.

Monday, they said, was important in determining Big Brown’s schedule, and both trainer Rick Dutrow and hoof specialist Ian McKinlay expressed encouragement.

“This morning a lot of heat had come out from yesterday, which is an excellent sign,” McKinlay said. “As usual, just a little bit of movement in that heel is enough to warm up the foot. As we look at him here, he is not as sensitive on the coronet band. Now, we just basically made a little trench and got him down to the wall, just about to the laminae; that’s the sensitive part of the hoof. And we put in one set of sutures, which is like stitches, made of stainless steel wire, and we drew that crack together. And probably tomorrow, he’ll be in much better shape.

“Of course, Rick will check him first thing in the morning. I’m actually going to be at Monmouth, but everything should just keep progressing. What we’re trying to do is stabilize that heel so we can get quicker healing.”

Big Brown was scheduled to make his only serious pre-Belmont work on Saturday morning. Dutrow said that could be moved to Monday or Tuesday, but would not be made any earlier.

“We can most likely jog him (tomorrow), but I don’t want to do that,” Dutrow said. “I want Ian to look at him again before we actually go to the track. If he looks great tomorrow, I still won’t jog him. It’s a little hiccup on the way over there, that’s all it is. The time he has missed means nothing to me or him.

“This could also be a very good thing because he burnt his heels (at Pimlico) and it gives him time to get over that. No way missing four, five or six days is going to affect the outcome and his racing ability when he runs.”