Backtalk drills for Breeders' Futurity

Last updated: 10/5/09 8:56 PM

Backtalk will be making his Polytrack debut
(Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography)

Sanford S. (G2) and Bashford Manor S. (G3) hero BACKTALK (Smarty Jones) had
his first work over Keeneland’s Polytrack surface Monday morning, covering six
furlongs in 1:12 4/5 and galloping out seven furlongs in 1:25 2/5 with Miguel
Mena aboard in preparation for Saturday’s Breeders’ Futurity (G1).

Trained by Tom Amoss, Backtalk broke off about five lengths behind two
workmates in the move that took place shortly after 6:30 a.m. (EDT), with fog
shrouding the infield. Backtalk sliced the deficit to a couple of lengths at the
eighth-pole, swung to the outside and drew even at the sixteenth-pole and hit
the wire a couple of lengths in front.

Amoss was happy with the work, the colt’s third since finishing fourth in the
Hopeful S. (G1) on September 7 at Saratoga.

“He has done well since the Hopeful,” Amoss said. “That race didn’t go the
way we thought. He had a bad post position (12 in a field of 12) and a jock
(Richard Migliore) who was unfamiliar with him.”

Robby Albarado, who won the 2007 Breeders’ Futurity aboard Wicked Style
(Macho Uno), guided Backtalk through a bullet, six-furlong workout last Monday
at Churchill Downs and will have the mount Saturday.

Although the Breeders’ Futurity will be Backtalk’s first race on Polytrack,
the son of 2004 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Smarty Jones is no stranger to the
all-weather surface.

“He started on Polytrack at the farm in the Florida, and farm manager Todd
Quast told me when I got him that we had a quality horse,” Amoss said. “We took
him to Arlington (instead of Churchill Downs) because we thought the transition
would be easier.”

Backtalk won his first three starts, including victories coming in the
Bashford Manor at Churchill Downs and the Sanford at Saratoga.

“I have no doubt he’ll handle the track fine Saturday,” Amoss said of the
Breeders’ Futurity, which serves as a “Win & You’re In” race for the Breeders’
Cup Juvenile (G1) to be run at Santa Anita on November 7.

“We’ll run Saturday and then evaluate where we are,” Amoss added. “It will be
a team effort with Todd (Quast) and the owner (Paul Bulmahn) and then we’ll make
a decision. I think we are going to have a good three-year-old, and that is
first and foremost.”