Keep Nick Zito in mind come the Belmont: Hall of Fame trainer has a couple of favorites going

Trainer Nick Zito seeks 3rd Belmont win in 6 years

NEW YORK — When Nick Zito walks toward his barn, he passes five signs noting his victories in Triple Crown races: Two Kentucky Derbys, one Preakness, two Belmont Stakes.

“I like the classics,” the Hall of Fame trainer said Friday. “I don’t train too many fillies. Not too many sprinters or grass horses. I’m looking for horses who can make the classics.”

With that simple strategy, Zito has carved out a Hall of Fame career, and he’s hoping to add another $1 million Belmont score to his resume in Saturday’s final leg of the Triple Crown.

Zito sends out two of the three favorites — Ice Box and Fly Down — in a field of 12 3-year-olds that does not include Derby winner Super Saver and Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky.

No matter who’s in the field, though, Zito insists the race is “one of the most historic in the world.”

Ice Box, the Florida Derby winner who staged a tremendous rally to finish second in the Derby, is the 3-1 morning-line choice. Fly Down, a lightly raced colt who blew away the field by six lengths in winning the Dwyer last month, is the 9-2 third choice.

The big question is how horses will handle the Belmont distance, a 1½-mile lap around Belmont Park in the longest of the Triple Crown races.

“It’s a tricky kind of race,” Zito said. “Our horses are fine with the distance, we just want to see if they kick in. You have to fire at the right time, too.”

First Dude poses a huge threat as the 7-2 second choice. Probably the biggest horse in the field — he stands 17 hands tall — the colt trained by Dale Romans is coming off a gallant runner-up effort in the Preakness.

“The Belmont will be this horse’s race because he wants to go a mile and a half,” Romans said, “and he’ll love the track.”

First Dude, along with Game on Dude and Uptowncharlybrown, are candidates to set the early pace, while Zito’s colts have a similar come-from-behind style.

A hot and muggy day is forecast, with temperatures in the mid-80s and a 50 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms.

The New York Racing Association is hoping for a crowd approaching last year’s 52,000, which showed up for Summer Bird’s win without a Triple Crown on the line.

The rest of the Belmont field is filled with long shots, but don’t discount the chances of 10-1 shots Game On Dude, Make Music for Me and Uptowncharlybrown.

Lone Star Derby winner Game On Dude is trained by Bob Baffert, who saw his three Triple Crown attempts fall short in the Belmont but owns a Belmont with Point Given in 2001.

“It’s sort of wide open,” Baffert says. “We’re all within five lengths of each other. It’s whoever can go the mile and a half, that’s what it comes down to.”

As Fly Down’s jockey John Velazquez said: “This track can be very deceiving. You have to know where you are. Sometimes it isn’t easy. And you have to have a good horse who can run that far.”

Although this field is far from vintage — four starters have only a maiden win and just two have a Grade 1 win — there are several other intriguing story lines:

—Make Music for Me closed strongly to finish fourth in the Derby, and gives Alexis Barba a chance to become the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race.

“I enjoy the moment as it comes,” Barba said. “I don’t look at it in terms of gender. If I’m the first woman to win it, that’s a bonus.”

—Uptowncharlybrown, third in the Lexington Stakes in April in his last start, will attempt to raise the spirits of principal owner Bob Hutt and 58 other partners following the recent death of the colt’s trainer, Alan Seewald. ‘Charly’ is now trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, who won the 2006 Belmont with Jazil.

“Just before he died,” recalled Hutt, “he said, ‘Bob, we’re going to win the Belmont and then we’re going to win the Haskell. We’re going to be the last horse standing.”

The field, from the rail out, is Dave in Dixie (20-1), Spangled Star (30-1), Uptowncharlybrown (10-1), Make Music for Me (10-1), Fly Down (9-2), Ice Box (3-1), Drosselmeyer (12-1), Game On Dude (10-1), Stately Victor (15-1), Stay Put (20-1), First Dude (7-2), and Interactif (12-1).