It is only fitting that Alpha's serious Kentucky Derby preparations
concluded at Belmont Park Saturday morning. That's because, as with many
places the striking bay colt found himself this season, Belmont wasn't
where he was intended to be.
Talking to Kiaran McLaughlin, you'd have no clue. After his charge's
five-furlong workout :59.54 over the training track at the Long Island
oval, the trainer sounded like a man whose runner had just completed the
final steps of a precisely-executed plan.
"All systems go," McLaughlin confidently declared.
If only it had really been that simple.
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