Stay Thirsty, Uncle Mo ready for Super Saturday

Stay Thirsty solidified his status at the top of the three-year-old ranks when taking the Travers (Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com)

Mike Repole’s duo of STAY THIRSTY (Bernardini) and UNCLE MO (Indian
Charlie) turned in five-furlong breezes Sunday morning at Belmont Park
for their respective races on Super Saturday, October 1, the Jockey Club
Gold Cup (G1) and Kelso H. (G2).

Travers (G1) and Jim Dandy (G2) winner Stay Thirsty was clocked in
1:01 3/5 under jockey Javier Castellano, while champion Uncle Mo was
caught in :59 2/5 beneath exercise rider Patti Krotenko.

“I thought both horses worked exceptionally well,” trainer Todd
Pletcher said. “Uncle Mo is obviously a brilliant horse that’s capable
of doing fast things very easily and that’s kind of what we’ve come to
expect in his breezes. Stay Thirsty may be a little less ambitious work
horse, but he’s very consistent the way he was breezing leading up to
the Jim Dandy and the Travers. He finds a good rhythm and just keeps
going.”

After going to the sidelines with a liver ailment that kept him out
of the Triple Crown this spring, Uncle Mo was nipped by a nose at the
wire by Caleb’s Posse (Posse) in his comeback race, the King’s Bishop S.
(G1) at Saratoga on August 27.

Uncle Mo (top) was just denied by Caleb’s Posse in the King’s Bishop (Photo finish courtesy of NYRA)

“I grew up watching 25 years of the Classic, not 25 years of the Dirt Mile
(G1),” Repole told the DRF. “I want to run both of those horses in the Classic
then watch it come to down to a Blame-Zenyatta duel down the stretch only it’s
Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty coming down the stretch. I’ll be rooting for a dead
heat.”

Also on the worktab for Pletcher was multiple Grade 1 heroine LIFE AT TEN
(Malibu Moon), who will attempt to defend her title in the Beldame (G1) on Super
Saturday. Most recently third in the Delaware H. (G2) behind top older females
Blind Luck (Pollard’s Vision) and Havre de Grace (Saint Liam), Life at Ten was
recently outfitted with blinkers, which she wore while breezing six furlongs in
1:12 on Sunday at Belmont.

“Life at Ten had a good breeze,” Pletcher said. “We’ve put blinkers on her
for the last two works and it seems to have sparked her interest a bit, so we’ll
probably run in the Beldame with those on.”