Groupie Doll, champion female sprinter of 2012, took another step toward her
2013 debut and began galloping at Churchill Downs this weekend after a month of
jogging beneath the Twin Spires.
Groupie Doll was on the track Saturday shortly after it opened for training
at 6 a.m. (EDT) and jogged a mile and galloped a mile under Jada Schlenk. She
had the same routine Friday.
“She’s doing very well,” said trainer Buff Bradley, who also is a co-owner
and co-breeder of Groupie Doll. “She’ll gallop the whole month before she starts
breezing again.”
After finishing a nose behind Stay Thirsty in the Cigar Mile, Groupie Doll
was given a month off at Bradley’s Indian Ridge Farm in Frankfort, Kentucky, and
then was shipped to Gulfstream Park.
“Her blood work was off when she got to Gulfstream, so we gave her another
couple of weeks,” Bradley said. “Then when we took her to the track, she just
wasn’t going right. She was kinda funky. Not lame, but just not right.”
Bradley sent Groupie Doll back to his farm in early February and she returned
to Churchill Downs on the Monday after the Kentucky Derby.
“She came back bigger and she looks more filled out,” Bradley said. “Now that
I see her here, I can see how bad she was at Gulfstream. I can see it more now
than I could then because she’s happier and playing. She wanted the winter off.”
Bradley still hasn’t picked a definite spot for Groupie Doll’s return, but
has one race in mind.
“The Presque Isle (Downs Masters) is an option and one we are seriously
thinking about since we won it last year,” Bradley said. “Things could change
though and we might go a little earlier.”
The Grade 2 Presque Isle Downs Masters will be run on September 9.
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