Stay Thirsty, Rule fire a bullet in company ahead of
Woodward
Trainer Todd Pletcher sent out Grade 1 Woodward candidates Stay Thirsty and
Rule to work five furlongs Sunday morning in company for Saturday’s $750,000
race, with the pair firing a bullet 1:00.03 over Saratoga’s main track.
The move was the fastest of 23 at the distance for the duo, both coming off
disappointing efforts in their most recent starts. WinStar Farm’s Rule was ninth
behind Fort Larned in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap on August 4,
while Repole Stable’s Stay Thirsty was fifth in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap on
July 7 at Belmont Park.
“They both worked well; I’m happy with both of them,” Pletcher said. “It
seemed Rule worked more along the lines of how he worked prior to (winning the
Grade 2 Monmouth Cup) and the way he worked before he was third in the Woodward
last year. It seems like he’s ready to go.”
The trainer added that Stay Thirsty, who is 3-1-0 in four starts at the Spa,
including victories in last year’s Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Grade 1 Travers, worked
“as well as he’s ever worked.”
Saratoga’s leading rider, Ramon Dominguez, will ride Rule in the Woodward,
Pletcher said, with Javier Castellano aboard Stay Thirsty.
Multiple Grade 2 hero Mucho Macho Man turned in an easy maintenance drill
Sunday morning on the main track in preparation for the Woodward.
With exercise rider Nick Petro up, Mucho Macho Man went five furlongs down
the middle of the track in 1:02 4/5, which ranked 21st of 23 works in the
morning at the distance.
Coming off a commanding 2 1/2-length win in the Suburban, the four-year-old
son of Macho Uno will seek his first Grade 1 victory Saturday.
“We haven’t run him in a Grade 1 stakes since the (2011) Belmont, but the
last two races he’s run in were Grade 1-type fields, and he beat them,” trainer
Kathy Ritvo said.
Mucho Macho Man is three-for-four this season. Victorious in the Florida
Sunshine Millions Classic over Grade 1 winners Ron the Greek and Turbo
Compressor in his 2012 debut, he captured the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap,
defeating Grade 1 winner Jackson Bend. Mucho Macho Man finished third in the
Grade 2 Alysheba before rebounding in the Suburban.
Several other prominent workers made an appearance on the Saratoga tab.
Undefeated champion filly My Miss Aurelia breezed five panels in 1:01 2/5. In
her comeback from injury, the Steve Asmussen trainee rallied to a three-length
decision in the August 8 Mandy’s Gold, extending her record to five for five.
Unbeaten Grade 3 Schuylerville heroine So Many Ways, prepping for next
Sunday’s Grade 1 Spinaway, sped in 1:00 4/5.
Grade 1 Wood Memorial winner Gemologist, a disappointing last in the Grade 1
Haskell Invitational, went a half-mile in :48.
A trio of Chad Brown trainees took to the Oklahoma training turf.
Group 1 Irish One Thousand Guineas queen Samitar and French Group 2 heroine
Dream Peace each sizzled five furlongs in :58 3/5 on the firm ground. Samitar
was a close third in the Grade 2 Lake George in her U.S. debut, while Dream
Peace exits a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 Diana.
Multiple Grade 3 vixen Dayatthespa, three-for-three this campaign after
taking the Grade 3 Appalachian in April, traveled a grassy half-mile in :48 4/5.
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