Mark Hopkin’s A HUEVO (Cool Joe) was nominated to both the $100,000 Fred W.
Hooper (G3) and the $100,000 Kenny Noe Jr. H. on Saturday at Calder, but Hopkins
indicated Monday morning that the eight-year-old would likely run in the 1
1/8-mile Fred
Hooper, “as long as it doesn’t rain.”
“I’m hoping he’ll run well,” Hopkins said. “I don’t know what to expect. He
didn’t run well in the (Frank J.) De Francis (Memorial Dash S. [G1]) and we have
a couple of theories, but don’t know for sure. He just didn’t fire. The race in
West Virginia, that was more like him.”
The race in West Virginia was the 1 1/8-mile West Virginia Breeders Classic
S. at Charles Town on October 9, when the gelding took the lead with six
furlongs to go and drew away to win by an astounding 19 1/4 lengths in only his
second start after a nearly ten-month layoff.
“After his first race back at Saratoga (a seventh-place finish in the Forego H. [G1]
on September 4), we found that he had an abscess in
his foot, but this last race of his (sixth in the De Francis on November 20), we’re just scratching our
heads. So we’ve got some questions for him to answer on Saturday.”
A Huevo’s trainer, Michael Dickinson, is currently in England and is expected
back in the United States on Thursday, but his plans are to return to his Tapeta Farm
in Maryland.