The tallest participants in the Breeders’ Cup Classic are Rashard Lewis, the two-time NBA All-Star who is a co-owner of Cigar Street, and Tonalist, who is looking to end his season with an emphatic slam dunk Saturday.
Tonalist, the winner of the Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup, arrived here late Tuesday and went to the track for the first time Wednesday morning with exercise rider Lee Vickers. He merely jogged, but against the backdrop of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains, he looked like one of the peaks.
“He’s 17 hands tall,” said Christophe Lorieul, the assistant trainer who is overseeing the care of trainer Christophe Clement’s horses until the boss arrives Thursday night. “He’s still a baby. I hope he doesn’t find out how strong he is.”
That certainly would make life difficult for Vickers, who gets on Tonalist every morning. But Tonalist was well behaved. He really acted like a gentle giant.
Tonalist is one of the elite 3-year-olds in this year’s Classic. Like the expected race favorite, Shared Belief, he has beaten his elders in a Grade 1 stakes, having captured the Jockey Club Gold Cup in his last start.
“I think he’s getting better and better,” Lorieul said.
Tonalist drew post 11, the same post he had when winning the Belmont.
“He is a big horse, so you don’t want to be in a situation where you have to take him back or send him early,” Lorieul said. “It is much better for him to break from this post than to start from anything more inside.”
Lorieul said he thought Tonalist had settled in well for his first venture out of the Eastern time zone. All his previous races have been in New York or Florida.
Two other New York-based Classic runners, Cigar Street and Zivo, had eye-catching gallops Wednesday just after the midmorning renovation break. They arrived Monday and had easy days Tuesday.