Wildcat Red scheduled to breeze, possibly targeting Haskell

Wildcat Red is scheduled to return to the worktab on Saturday (Lauren King/Adam Coglianese Photography)

Fountain of Youth and Hutcheson hero Wildcat Red has emerged from his very troubled trip in the
May 3 Kentucky
Derby in good shape, trainer Jose Garoffalo reported.

“He’s doing good. He’ll breeze probably Saturday — an easy half-mile, a
routine breeze,” Garoffalo said. “He’s been galloping good. There are no issues
with the horse after the race.”

Wildcat Red was given a couple weeks off from training
after his 18th-place finish in the Derby, in which he suffered a cut on his
right front leg.

“It was above the right ankle — about an inch long. It
wasn’t too deep, but enough to take care of it. He had other scratches and
bruises everywhere,” said Garoffalo, whose colt’s comment line for the Derby
read, “bobble, bump, steady, shuffled.”

The Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 27 is a
likely target for the Florida-bred son of D’wildcat, who had finished second in
the Florida Derby prior to his Kentucky Derby start.

“If the horse goes good, maybe we’ll find a race for him in
the middle of June or the third week in June as a prep for the Haskell,” Garoffalo
remarked.