Napoleon Solo to Breeze Next Week Preparing for Haskell

Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Napoleon Solo is sitting out the June 6 Belmont Stakes (G1), along with the entire field from the second leg of the Triple Crown at Laurel Park, but his trainer Chad Summers is trackside for the Belmont Stakes Festival at Saratoga Race Course. Summers is running four horses in maiden and allowance races this week, and when he's not observing his horses in action, he will be keeping an eye on the 3-year-old stakes competition. That includes watching Saturday's Belmont, and the simulcast of the June 7 Matt Winn Stakes (G3) from Churchill Downs—both of which could produce starters for the $1 million Haskell Stakes (G1) July 18 at Monmouth Park—where Napoleon Solo remains scheduled to run next following his recent sale to ESPOIR USA. The financial terms of the sale remain undisclosed, as do those associated with the new ownership. "I'm not at liberty to say who they are at this time," Summers said, though he added the colt is "their only horse in America right now." ESPOIR USA is also on board with pursuing the Haskell, just as former owner Al Gold of Gold Square was, according to Summers. The trainer has the first of five planned works leading up to the 1 1/8-mile Haskell, with the first breeze slotted for June 11 at Belmont Park. By design, he chose to give Napoleon Solo a short break from workouts after the Preakness, with more than two months between the Preakness and the Haskell. "You know, all of a sudden you're breezing, breezing, breezing, and you go over the top," he said. Upon the conclusion of his racing career, expected to continue through his 4-year-old season, Napoleon Solo will become a stallion at Lane's End in Central Kentucky, bloodstock agent David Ingordo told Daily Racing Form, which first reported his sale last week. His sire, Liam's Map, stands at Lane's End in Kentucky for $50,000. Summers purchased Napoleon Solo for $40,000 at the 2024 Keenland September Yearling Sale from the Glennwood Farm consignment. John Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock bred the gray and/or roan colt in Kentucky out of the stakes-winning Scat Daddy mare Atomic Blonde. The 3-year-old is 3-0-0 in five starts with earnings of more than $1.5 million. He also captured a maiden race at Saratoga and the Champagne Stakes (G1) last year at Aqueduct Racetrack as a juvenile. His two defeats were fifth-place finishes in both the Feb. 28 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park and the April 4 Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct—efforts that preceded his Preakness victory. Napoleon Solo is not the only 3-year-old that the New York-based Summers has targeted for a seven-figure stakes race this year. Gold Square's Throckmorton, winner of the 2025 Awad Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack and three times stakes placed in turf sprints this year as a sophomore, has the $1.5 million Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G2T) at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs on his long-term itinerary. Summers plans to race Throckmorton in the $225,000 Quick Call Stakes (G3T), a 5 1/2-furlong turf dash July 19 at Saratoga ahead of the race at Kentucky Downs. Both stakes races are restricted to 3-year-olds.