McGaughey: Point of Entry could be ‘awful tough’ in Turf
Multiple Grade 1 star Point of Entry galloped 1
1/4 miles over the Santa Anita main track Wednesday morning for a scheduled return
from a five-month layoff in Saturday’s Turf.
The five-year-old son of Dynaformer, who suffered a non-displaced
condylar fracture of his left-hind cannon bone after winning the Manhattan on
June 8, has the confidence of trainer Shug McGaughey that he can come back from the
long layoff in top form.
“Every work’s gotten better and better. It’s a tall task,
but with a horse like him, it’s not quite as tall,” McGaughey said. “He’s a very
good horse and he handles his training well. He’s good and sound right now,
knock on wood. All indications are he’ll run a good race.
“It’s hard to be overly confident when we haven’t run since
June 8 and coming off an injury. The injury won’t be a factor at all. I don’t
think the rest will be a factor. I think if he’s the best horse and gets some
racing luck, I think he’ll be awful tough.”
Point of Entry didn’t have the best of racing luck in last
year’s Turf, in which he lacked room along the inside into deep stretch before
surging late to finish second, a half-length behind victorious Little Mike.
“I was very disappointed,” McGaughey admitted. “He just didn’t shake loose until
too late and just didn’t get there. He deserves to win a race
like this, especially with what happened last year. I’m pumped up that he’s got
the opportunity to give it a try again.”
The loss in the 2012 Turf was the only defeat in his last
eight starts.
“He’s a very good horse — maybe as good as I’ve had,”
McGaughey said. “He loves to train; he loves to race; I think that’s why it
makes it a little bit easier to do this.”
The bay gelding Twilight Eclipse, who was fifth behind Point of Entry in the
Manhattan prior to runner-up efforts in the Man o’War and Sword Dancer, made a
nice transition from east to west Wednesday when he went trackside at Santa
Anita for a jog on the main track at 7 a.m.
The four-year-old had flown from New York Tuesday on a flight that
went to Louisville, Kentucky, to pick up other horses (including last year’s Classic winner
Fort Larned), then stopped again in Oklahoma City before finally getting its
equine passengers to their Santa Anita stalls about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
Twilight Eclipse is trained by veteran Tom Albertrani, but
is being overseen currently by his chief assistant, Josh Flores.
“(Twilight Eclipse) had a long flight and they had to
work around a storm along the way,” Flores explained, “but he shipped well and ate
right up. He’s showing us some good life this morning, so it looks like all is
well.”
Twilight Eclipse is the current world record holder at the
1 1/2 mile distance of the Turf off his 2:22.63 tally in the Pan American at
Gulfstream Park in March.
“We jogged him this morning,” Flores noted, “then we’ll gallop him Thursday
and Friday.”
Flores said Albertrani would be aboard a flight from New
York Wednesday and was expected at Barn 77 Thursday morning.
With trainer Kristin Mulhall in the
irons, Tale of a Champion went through routine morning exercise on Wednesday,
jogging before galloping five furlongs in preparation for a Breeders’ Cup assignment for
the second year in a row. The Tale of the Cat five-year-old was eighth in the 2012
Turf Sprint in his third start for Mulhall after previously being based in
Florida.
Tale of a Champion will be the first starter in consecutive
years, and the fifth overall, for Mulhall, who has three eighth-place and one
ninth-place finish previously with Imperialism (2005), Romp (2010, 2012)
and Tale of Champion (2012).
“We bought (Tale of a Champion) over the summer
specifically for the downhill sprint, which we knew would be a tough
assignment,” Mulhall explained. “The more he’s trained he has shown that he
wanted to go longer distances so we put him in this race this year.”
Vagabond
Shoes galloped 1 1/2 miles at 9 a.m. Wednesday in preparation for his first Breeders’
Cup run in what will be his eighth U.S. start in a 28-race career. Prior to
coming to trainer John Sadler’s barn for a 2013 campaign, the six-year-old gelding had
raced in Spain, France, Turkey, Dubai and Germany.
“What’s interesting about him is that a lot of European
horses who prove to be good over here are good right off the plane,” Sadler
said of the Irish-bred son of Beat Hollow. “He didn’t run very well in the first couple starts. He had a lot of
trouble in his first start and the second race he got put on the lead, which was
wrong. Then I tried him on synthetics.
“I had to experiment with him a little the first two or
three starts. But I always liked what I saw from him in the mornings and once we
kind of figured him out he has done well and continued to improve. I think he
was considered more of a miler in Europe, but we’ve taken him out to longer
distances and he has liked it.”
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