Grade 1 winner QUALITY ROAD (Elusive Quality) put in his final breeze before
Saturday’s Travers S. (G1) at Saratoga, covering five furlongs Monday morning
over the muddy main track in :59 3/5, fourth fastest of 24 at the distance.
“It felt good, very good. I wanted to do enough, but not let him do too
much,” said jockey John Velazquez, on board for the work in company with
stablemate Unbridled Belle (Broken Vow), who worked in :59 4/5 in advance of
Sunday’s Personal Ensign S. (G1). “As soon as I got right to the other horse, he
got into the bridle and then I had him slow down a little bit. I didn’t want to
let him do too much down the lane.”
Pletcher, too, seemed pleased with the work.
“I thought he went well,” Pletcher said. “We were shooting for a minute to a
minute-one and we were pretty close to that. It looked like he galloped out
well.”
Originally set for a Sunday morning work, the colt’s schedule was influenced
by rainy weather this weekend and he was sent out just before 9 a.m. (EDT),
immediately following the renovation break.
“We needed this work to set ourselves up and he handled it well,” Pletcher
said. “In a perfect world, we’d have worked on a perfectly fast race track. But,
the forecast didn’t look like it was going to definitely be better tomorrow so
we felt like we needed to get in and go. I walked both tracks this morning and I
felt like the main track was quite a bit better than the training track, so I
decided to go at 8:45 and it worked out fine.”
Quality Road enters the Travers off a record-breaking win in the 6
1/2-furlong Amsterdam S. (G2) on August 3. It was the colt’s third graded stakes
win and second track record in a row, and marked his first start after a
four-month layoff due to foot problems. After winning the Florida Derby (G1) in
track-record time while under the care of previous trainer Jimmy Jerkens,
Quality Road was sidelined by a pair of quarter cracks that kept him from
running in the May 2 Kentucky Derby (G1). In June, he was transferred to
Pletcher’s barn with the 1 1/4-mile Travers a primary objective.
“He came back and he’s cooling out good so far — doesn’t seem to blowing all
that hard,” Pletcher said as he watched the horse walk following Monday’s work.
“I think we’ve got him in as good a position as we could be in with one race
under our belt.”
Pletcher was noncommittal about Rachel Alexandra’s (Medaglia d’Oro) absence
from the Travers field after it was announced Monday that she would skip the
race in favor of the Woodward S. (G1) on September 5. Her stablemate KENSEI (Mr.
Greeley), winner of the Jim Dandy S. (G2), will enter the Travers.
“We have a lot of respect for her, obviously and she’s had a good consistent
series of races and we have not,” Pletcher said. “In a perfect world, if we were
going to catch her it would be at a time when we were coming off of a good
series of races as well. I don’t know that (Rachel’s absence) really changes the
pace scenario all that much, I think there’s plenty of pace for a mile and a
quarter. WARRIOR’S REWARD (Medaglia d’Oro) and Kensei both have forward running
(styles), as does CHARITABLE MAN (Lemon Drop Kid) and Zito’s horse (Our Edge
[The Cliff’s Edge]) as well. It appears to me there’s going to be a good, honest
pace in the race.”
Kentucky Derby winner MINE THAT BIRD (Birdstone) galloped two miles Monday
morning at Saratoga and is set to have his final tune-up for the Travers Tuesday
morning
“Right now he’s 100 percent,” said trainer Chip Woolley of Mine That Bird,
who underwent minor surgery last Tuesday to repair an entrapped epiglottis. “The
doctor (Dr. James Hunt) scoped him this morning and his words were ‘excellent,
perfect.’ He said if it were going to get some irritation we would have seen it
by now.”
Jamie Theriot will be aboard the gelding for the breeze over the main track
at 8 a.m., right after the renovation break, Woolley said.
The trainer said he was not surprised by the news that Preakness
winning-filly Rachel Alexandra was bypassing the Travers in favor of the
nine-furlong Woodward here the following Saturday.
“I had a suspicion all along she wasn’t going in there,” he said. “And her
not being in there is not a bad thing.”
Woolley said that even with Rachel Alexandra out of the Travers, he expected
an honest pace for his late-closing horse.
“There’s no doubt that her being in there was going to set up the pace, but
you’re picking up Charitable Man to set a solid pace,” he said. “The important
thing is that my horse runs his race, and not to worry about what everyone else
is doing.”
Tim Ice, trainer of Belmont S. (G1) winner SUMMER BIRD (Birdstone), did not
think Rachel Alexandra’s absence from the Travers would drastically change the
complexion of the race.
“I think it’s still going to be a good race,” he said. “I’m not disappointed
she’s not going in it, it definitely opens up the race a little bit.”
Summer Bird, second to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell, walked Monday morning
and will return to the track to jog Tuesday. On Wednesday, the son of 2004
Travers winner Birdstone will “two-minute clip” the final quarter during his
gallop, Ice said.
“From quarter-pole home, he’ll open up,” Ice said. “It’s slower than a work
but faster than a gallop.”
Summer Bird will jog Thursday and gallop Friday, Ice said.
Charitable Man, third as the favorite to Kensei in the Jim Dandy, galloped
two miles for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
“There was no concern about him going over the track,” McLaughlin said. “It
seemed like the track was getting better throughout the morning. Otherwise, he’s
doing fine.”
Charitable Man, who won the Futurity S. (G2) as a two-year-old and the Peter
Pan S. (G2) in May, breezed four furlongs last Friday in :47 2/5.
This will be the first Travers for both owner William Warren Jr. and
McLaughlin.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott postponed HOLD ME BACK’s (Giant’s Causeway)
workout until Tuesday morning after seeing Monday morning’s muddy track
conditions.
Mott said he will have Hold Me Back either on the Oklahoma training track at
6 a.m. or the main track at 8 a.m., shortly after the break.
“It depends on what these tracks do over the course of the morning,” Mott
said. “I cannot control the weather.”
This will be the fourth and final workout at Saratoga for Hold Me Back, who
won the Lane’s End S. (G2) at Turfway Park in March followed by a second-place
effort in the Blue Grass S. (G1) at Keeneland. After a 12th-place finish in the
Kentucky Derby, the colt tried turf in the Virginia Derby (G2) at Colonial Downs
on July 18 and finished fifth.