Air Recruit a top prospect in Listed Artie Schiller
Mark Grier’s Air Recruit brings a thrilling last-out stakes win to Friday’s Listed $175,000 Artie Schiller, a one-mile Widener turf test for 3-year-olds and up, at Belmont Park.
Trained by Arnaud Delacour, the 5-year-old Air Force Blue chestnut enters from a title defense in the 1 1/16-mile Oceanport on August 8 at Monmouth Park. The gutsy gelding won both editions by a nose, this time over dual graded winner and 2024 Artie Schiller victor Running Bee in a final time of 1:44.63 on good turf, earning a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure.
“When he won the last race at Monmouth, we said, ‘let’s freshen him up a little and aim for the Artie Schiller,’” Delacour said. “That was the race we were shooting for all along.”
Air Recruit kicked off his campaign in July with a neck second in a nine-furlong optional claimer at Colonial Downs.
“For some reason he had a very slow winter and I was not happy with him. He wasn’t doing that great or training that well – nothing terribly wrong, but we just decided to take our time, and he came back to run two very nice races,” said Delacour. “I think he’s still peaking and I’m happy with the way he is and the way he looks and trains.”
Air Recruit posted a 2-for-4 campaign last year off a more than 20-month layoff dating to a pacesetting 3 1/4-length seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in November 2023 at Del Mar.
“The owner lives in New Jersey, so it’s exciting to run at Belmont and with a good chance,” Delacour said. “I think it makes a lot of sense.”
Bred in Kentucky by Springhouse Farm, Air Recruit [post 9, Paco Lopez], a $105,000 purchase at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Select Yearling Sale, is a half-brother to graded stakes-placed Howling Time out of the winning Arch mare Werewolf.
Live Oak Plantation’s Florida-bred Souper Forces [post 7, Antonio Fresu] also enters from a Monmouth stakes win, dominating the one-mile Red Bank by 3 1/2 lengths over good turf on September 6.
Trained by Michael Trombetta, the 4-year-old Laoban gelding launched his season with a second sprinting six furlongs over synthetic in a July optional claimer at Presque Isle Downs– a strong race won by Spirited Sol, who two starts later took the Da Hoss at Colonial Downs and is entered in Thursday’s Grade 3 Belmont Turf Sprint here, while the third-place finisher, John Dutton, has won both starts since at Presque Isle, including the Power by Far.
“He seemed to really like that track last time,” said Trombetta. “This horse has continued to do very, very well for us. The first race, he ran really good off the layoff. It was a good-sized layoff and that was the best we could’ve expected out of him. He ran a good second sprinting and then we just moved him back into what he does best.”
Souper Forces posted a 3-for-3 start to his career last year, winning the 1 1/16-mile Showing Up in November at Gulfstream Park ahead of an off-the-board finish in the Listed Tropical Park Derby in December there. Souper Forces is out of the Trombetta-trained stakes-winning More Than Ready mare American Giant, a half-sister to dual stakes-winner Crystal Quest for the same connections.
Five-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, who took this event in 2024 with Running Bee, sends out Intellect [post 6, Manny Franco] and Cosmic Year [post 1, Dylan Davis, blinkers ON].
Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb and Steven Bouchey’s Intellect enters from a 3 1/2-length score in a one-mile optional claimer on August 14 at the Spa. The 5-year-old Intello gelding has hit the board in 7-of-8 starts for Brown, including seconds in last year’s Grade 1 Fourstardave, Grade 3 Poker and Grade 3 Kelso. The bay made nine prior starts in his native France for conditioner Henri-Francois Devin.
“I’m very proud of the horse that he came back into form,” Brown said.
Juddmonte’s British-bred Cosmic Year was second to Intellect last out in the August optional claimer at the Spa. The 4-year-old Kingman dark bay was making his third start for Brown after seven outings overseas for trainer Harry Charlton, including a second in last year’s Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh and a third in the Group 2 Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards Challenge at Newmarket.
“He’s been a little frustrating, that horse, so we are trying to get him back on track,” Brown said. “We will try an equipment change with a blinker here.”
Rounding out the field is dual graded stakes-placed Capitol Hill [post 3, Junior Alvarado] for Hall of Famer Bill Mott; stakes-winners Itsallcomintogetha [post 5, Ruben Silvera] for trainer Lisa Bartkowski and Silent Heart [post 2, Jose Lezcano] for conditioner Mike Maker; stakes-placed Clever Mischief [post 8, Javier Castellano] for conditioner Brendan Walsh and Sounds Like a Plan [post 4, Ricardo Santana, Jr.] for trainer Horacio De Paz.
The Artie Schiller is slated as Race 8 on Friday’s nine-race card, which includes the state-bred $175,000 Bertram F. Bongard in Race 2 and rescheduled state-bred $175,000 Joseph A. Gimma in Race 3. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
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