Blue Grass Stakes winner Dullahan put in a bullet workout Saturday morning at
Churchill Downs and will be headed to Del Mar soon for final preparations before
a start in the Grade 1, $1 million Pacific Classic on August 26.
Under regular exercise rider Faustino Aguilar, Dullahan went five furlongs in
1:00 1/5, fastest of 20 workouts at the distance.
Contacted by e-mail, Jerry Crawford, head of the Donegal Racing partnership
that owns Dullahan, said the Kentucky-bred son of Even the Score would head west
“as soon as we can get a plane organized.”
Dullahan, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby but unplaced in his
last two dirt starts, the Haskell Invitational and Belmont Stakes, has earned
more than $1.1 million from 11 career starts, registering both career wins in
Grade 1 events on Keeneland’s Polytrack: the Breeders’ Futurity at two and the
Blue Grass this spring.
“He obviously likes the Polytrack, and this (Pacific Classic) was our best
opportunity to get him back on it in a big race,” trainer Dale Romans said by
telephone from Saratoga.
Crawford said that Joel Rosario, who won Del Mar jockey titles from 2009-2011
before relocating to New York this spring, would return to California to ride
Dullahan.
Arrangements are being made for Dullahan to be stabled at Barn P with trainer
Tom Proctor’s horses. Crawford said exercise rider/assistant trainer Tammy Fox,
wife of the trainer, would accompany Dullahan on the trip as will a groom who is
familiar with the horse.
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