Cocoa Beach fine after loss; Vineyard Haven ready to resume
breezing
Rick Mettee, North American racing manager for Godolphin and assistant to
head trainer Saeed bin Suroor, discussed a few of the team’s top horses under
his care on Monday.
Multiple Grade 1 queen COCOA BEACH (Chi) (Doneraile Court), who finished last
of four as the prohibitive favorite in Sunday’s Heatherten S. at Belmont Park,
was no worse for wear the next morning. The five-year-old mare was making her
first start since capturing the November 30 Matriarch S. (G1).
“She seems to be fine, scoped clear, and ate up her breakfast,” Mettee said.
“Maybe she needed the race. (Jockey) Ramon (Dominguez) had breezed her the
previous week in the mud, and said she seemed to be fit enough.
“She got keen going into a slow pace, which probably didn’t help, and Ramon
said she knew she was beat midway through the turn. She was tired.”
Mettee added that Cocoa Beach would likely make her next start in a Grade 1
race at Saratoga.
“There’s the Go for Wand (at 1 1/8 miles on August 2), and the Diana (going 1
1/8 grassy miles on August 1) and the Personal Ensign (contested at 1 1/4 miles
on the main track on August 30),” he said.
FLASHING (A.P. Indy), who breezed five furlongs in a brisk :59 2/5 on the
main track on Saturday, continues to do “especially well” as she prepares for
Saturday’s Mother Goose S. (G1). The well-bred chestnut was promoted to
Godolphin after winning her last three starts for Tom Albertrani, capped by the
May 2 Nassau County S. (G3).
Mettee added that two of Godolphin’s top three-year-olds, last year’s
champion juvenile male MIDSHIPMAN (Unbridled’s Song) and multiple Grade 1 hero
VINEYARD HAVEN (Lido Palace [Chi]), were both doing well after having spent the
early part of the year in Dubai.
“Vineyard Haven is galloping away,” Mettee said of the gray, who was fourth
to Desert Party (Street Cry [Ire]) in his only start this year in the February
12 U.A.E. Two Thousand Guineas (UAE-G3). “He probably should have breezed by
now, but the weather is holding things up.”
Midshipman has not raced since his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
(G1). Taken off the Triple Crown trail in early March because of a tendon injury
to his left front leg, the chestnut colt is further behind Vineyard Haven at
present.
“He’s been jogging and is ready to start galloping,” Mettee said.
No timetable has been set for their return to racing.