Trainer Chris Block hopes to bag his second consecutive win — and third
overall– in the Grade 3, $175,000 Pucker Up on September 14 with what could be
a troika of talent in the race’s 50th edition.
“I O Ireland, My Option and maybe Alette will run,” the Arlington-based
trainer has confirmed.
In 2006, the conditioner annexed his first Pucker Up with multiple graded
stakes winner Vacare. Last year, Team Block’s eventual Illinois champion turf
mare Leading Astray won for the trainer.
I O Ireland is a half-sister to stable star Ioya Bigtime who is just now
coming into her own, as evidenced by a victory in last month’s second division
of the $75,000 Hatoof.
“She’s coming around and maturing,” Block said. “She’s doing well and falling
into a routine where we’ve been able to get two or three races underneath her
and that has worked out as far as using her abilities in the correct way. We had
a rough winter down at Gulfstream (Park) and strategy-wise it didn’t work out
too well on the turf there.”
The class of his trio is My Option, who this season won the Arlington Oaks in
a hard-fought photo before finishing third in the first division of the Hatoof
last out.
“The real question with her is whether or not she’s good enough on turf,”
Block said of the filly who has won stakes on Polytrack and dirt, while also
breaking her maiden on the turf. “Her last race was solid, but she didn’t win
and I think she deserves another shot at the grass. I think, in her own age
group, she’s worthy of that.”
When asked if the grueling Oaks may have taken a little bit out of her, Block
agreed that such could have been a detriment to her Hatoof performance. “That
maybe was the case. I hope that was (why she didn’t win),” he concluded.
While I O Ireland and My Option are definitely being aimed toward a start in
the Pucker Up, the highly-regarded Alette is less certain. In the second
division of the Hatoof, she ran unexpectedly poorly after two straight solid
performances over the local grass.
“(Alette’s race was) not even close to what I expected last time. I don’t
have an explanation, which is why she is not definite (for the Pucker Up) yet.
She’s much better than that.”
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