NEW YORK — Kiaran McLaughlin hopes Charitable Man isn’t in a giving mood on Belmont Stakes day.
Perhaps the top challenger to 2-1 favorite Mine That Bird in Saturday’s Belmont, Charitable Man is coming into the race fresh, fit and hopefully ready to hold off any kind of finishing kick the Derby winner comes up with.
If McLaughlin sounds confident, it’s because he is.
“His father won the Belmont, he’s 2-for-2 at Belmont, 3-for-3 on dirt,” McLaughlin said. “Do I need to keep going?”
After Calvin Borel heard what McLaughlin had said, the jockey who guaranteed his horse, Mine That Bird, will win replied, “We’ll see what happens.”
Borel, who won the Derby aboard Mine That Bird and the Preakness aboard Rachel Alexandra, is attempting to become the first jockey to win all three races on different horses.
While Borel will be riding in the Belmont for the first time, McLaughlin is familiar with the 1 1/2-mile “Test of the Champion,” the longest and most grueling race of them all. He’s 1-for-1 in the final leg of the Triple Crown, winning the 2006 edition with Jazil.
“I”m not trying to sound cocky or overconfident,” McLaughlin said. “All I’m saying is that we have a horse whose style fits this race. With a little luck, Mine That Bird would be going for a Triple Crown, so I respect that horse and all the others in the field. But I have a quality horse.”
Mine That Bird got his first look at the track on a rainy Thursday morning, galloping once around the huge oval.
Charitable Man is the 3-1 second choice and will line up just inside the Derby winner from the No. 6 post.
