Metropolitan Mile (Grade 1)

THE Belmont topped a strong card that featured 10 stakes, eight of them Grade 1. The $1.2 million Metropolitan Handicap became the focal point of the day, aside from the Belmont, thanks to a field that included two-time Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow, three-time Grade 1 winner McKinzie, leading sprinters Mitole, Firenze Fire and Promises Fulfilled. Rarely do such events live up to the hype but the Met Mile delivered.

Mitole put away Godolphin Mile winner Coal Front early and held off the double challenge of McKinzie and Thunder Snow late to win his second straight Grade 1 and first at a mile, adding one of American racing’s great prizes to his Churchill Downs Stakes win on Derby Day.

“Tremendous race from top to bottom and for him to sustain the pressure from Coal Front and Promised Fulfilled and then hold off McKinzie and Thunder Snow speaks for itself,” said Steve Asmussen, who won last year’s Met Mile with Bee Jersey and trains Mitole for Bill and Corinne.”

Back-to-back

“Winning back-to-back editions of the Met Mile, I can’t even put into words what this means … We’re just so fortunate to be associated with this horse.”

Asmussen collected two Grade 1s on the day, along with Midnight Bisou in the Ogden Phipps for older fillies and mares. Mitole stretched his win streak to seven in the Met Mile and Midnight Bisou collected her fourth straight victory.

World Of Trouble kept the consecutive score streak rolling with his latest Grade 1 victory in the Jaipur Invitational going six furlongs on the grass.

The winner of the five-and-a-half-furlong Twin Spires Turf Sprint last time on Derby Day and the Grade 1 Carter at seven furlongs on the dirt two back at Aqueduct, World Of Trouble handled his six opponents in the Jaipur and won in 1m 06.37secs.

“No one can do what Jason has done, he’s really brought this horse along incredibly,” Michael Dubb, co-owner of the four-year-old son of Kantharos with Madaket Stables and Bethlehem Stables