Shanghai Bobby to Run in Aljamin Stakes

One of 2012’s young superstars of racing will be back on the track next Friday in the $100,000 Aljamin Stakes at Belmont Park. Shanghai Bobby, winner of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, as well as five straight wins to start his career, will make his first start since the Florida Derby last March. He finished fifth in that one behind eventual 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, and afterward was diagnosed with a pelvic fracture that has kept him out of competition ever since. He had suffered his first career defeat two months prior in the Grade III Holy Bull.

BC Juvenile was fifth straight career victory

A Kentucky-bred sired by Harlan’s Holiday, and trained by Todd Pletcher, Shanghai Bobby burst on the racing scene in the spring of 2012, winning his first time out by four lengths at Aquaduct, and followed that up with a score in the Track Barron Stakes. He won the Grade II Hopeful and the Grade I Champagne before driving to a head win as the favorite in the BC Juvenile, the last of his five lifetime wins. Although Rosie Napravnik has been his only jockey to this point, John Velazquez will ride in the Aljimin.

Five others entered in the Aljamin

Set to challenge him will be five others, including Purple Egg, who was three-for-three last year, but has yet to get a win in two starts in 2013 and who also has not run since finishing third in the Trippi Stakes at Belmont in April. Stepping up to stakes competition for the first time will be Dad’s Caps, winner of two-of three in the allowance level for his career. Tenango, sixth in the Grade II Woody Stephens Stakes at Belmont in June, and Whiskey Romeo, who won the Trippi, and was sixth in the Grade III Jersey Shore, will complete the field.