Horse Racing News on June 7, 2011

On Thursday, more than a half-dozen jockeys from Belmont Park will ride into the hearts of families at the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island as part of the annual Jockey Day event.

Trainer Christophe Clement probably picked out Friday's Grade 3, $100,000 Poker Stakes at Belmont Poker as a way to ease his French-bred gelding Right One into North American graded stakes competition.

Denied last year from becoming the first back-to-back winner of the Brooklyn Handicap since Waquoit (1987-88), Eldaafer can still make a little history with a second career win in Friday's 1 1/2-mile marathon over one lap of Belmont Park's hallowed oval.