Defending Eclipse Award champion female sprinter and last year’s Breeder’s
Cup Filly & Mare Sprint heroine Musical Romance posted her first published
workout since a July 7 victory in the Grade 1 Princess Rooney Handicap when
breezing five furlongs in 1:03 1/5 over Calder’s wet-fast track on Tuesday
morning.
“Being the first one back, I was happy with her work,” trainer Bill Kaplan
said. “And you’ll see her on the worktab regularly now.”
Following her victory in the Princess Rooney, Kaplan had Musical Romance
pointed toward a start in either the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga, which was
run August 24, or the Grade 2 Presque Isle Masters, a race the mare won last
year, which is scheduled for September 8. The daughter of Concorde’s Tune will
end up missing both races.
“The transportation fell apart,” Kaplan explained of his need to alter course
with the mare. “Last year, when we were thinking of going up there to run (in
the Ballerina), FedEx had a flight directly to New Jersey and we could van from
there. This year, we would have had to go through Memphis, have a long layover
there, and then on to New Jersey for a van ride to Saratoga, which I thought was
too much to ask of her.
“And we’ve run into similar problems with the Presque Isle race. Last year we
went to Indianapolis where there was a short layover and then on to Pittsburgh,
which wasn’t a big deal. But this year we’d have to go to Memphis, then
Indianapolis, and then Pittsburgh. So we’ll pass that race as well.”
With those options sufficiently closed, Kaplan doesn’t rule out the
possibility of training the mare up to her title defense in the Filly & Mare
Sprint at Santa Anita on November 2, although the veteran trainer suggested he
may turn his attention to the local condition book in hopes of finding his
champion a prep race.
“It’s possible that we’ll just train her up to the Breeders’ Cup, although
it’s also possible that an overnight stake will come up here that we could run
her in,” Kaplan said. “That way we could let the local fans see her one more
time. There’s also a race in New York (Grade 2 Gallant Bloom) on September 22.
But again, the travel situation would have to change in order for us to make
that race.”
While Musical Romance is the established star in the Kaplan barn, an emerging
hopeful is Putyourdreamsaway, a commanding 7 1/2-length winner of last
Saturday’s seven-furlong Susan’s Girl division of the Florida Stallion Stakes.
“She came back excellent,” Kaplan said of the two-year-old filly. “Everything
I’ve done with her so far has been to get her ready for the two-turn race (the 1
1/16- mile My Dear Girl on October 13), so I don’t think it will be a problem at
all.”
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