SOCIETY’S CHAIRMAN (Not Impossible [Ire]), a length runner-up to Gio Ponti
(Tale of the Cat) in Saturday’s Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) at Keeneland, was
scheduled to return to his home base at Woodbine on Sunday night, according to
Sue Lorimer, assistant to trainer Roger Attfield.
“He came out of the race fine,” Lorimer said of Society’s Chairman, who has
posted a 5-2-1-1 record over the Keeneland turf course. “He loves Keeneland.
He’s just a different horse down here.”
Trainer Tom Bush said Sunday morning that dual Grade 2 hero GET STORMY
(Stormy Atlantic), fourth in the Shadwell Turf Mile, would return to New York on
Monday.
“He was bouncing me around the barn after the race,” Bush said. “I should
have put him on the lead; they were walking out there. It was not good strategy
on my part. He would have been second, but Gio Ponti was impressive.”
Before trainer Jenine Sahadi headed back to California on Sunday morning she
looked in on First Lady (G1) third-place finisher GOTTA HAVE HER (Royal
Academy), who was just a half-length and a nose back of winner Proviso (GB)
(Dansili [GB]).
“She is perfect this morning, but right now plans are uncertain for her,”
Sahadi said of Gotta Have Her, who was beaten a nose for second. “She was last
at the quarter-pole and had a lot to do and she did it but just ran out of
ground. Proviso was awesome.”
The photo for place was not the only one Sahadi lost on Saturday.
“It was a long day,” she admitted. “I got beat a nose in the Oak Tree Mile
(G2) with (Grade 1 winner) Karelian’s half-brother (Colgan’s Chip [Cee’s
Tizzy]).”
Trainer Jonathan Sheppard said that both INFORMED DECISION (Monarchos), third
in Saturday’s Thoroughbred Club of America S. (G2), and FANTASIA (GB) (Sadler’s
Wells), fourth in the First Lady, were doing fine Sunday morning.
“We’re happy with the way they ran and they both came back well,” he said.
“Live to fight another day.”
WILLCOX INN (Harlan’s Holiday) and ROUGH SAILING (Mizzen Mast), the
respective third and sixth-place runners in the Breeders’ Futurity (G1) will
return to the grass for their next starts, according to trainer Mike Stidham.
“We’ll look at the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G2) for Willcox Inn as a
possibility. I don’t know that we’d get in the race but we’ll look at it,”
Stidham said. “Rough Sailing will get back to the grass. I’m not sure what race
that will be, but we’ll definitely go back to the grass with him.”
Stidham said that both colts look good since their race.
“With Rough Sailing, I felt like he was a little more aggressive than he has
been in the past,” Stidham said. “We felt from the beginning that turf was his
preferred surface even in his works in the morning. He doesn’t finish that well
on the Polytrack. That’s why we tried to enter him in the (Sunday’s) Bourbon
(G3) and we wind up on the ‘also eligible’ (list). So I had no choice but to run
him in this race.
“With Willcox Inn, I thought he ran a great race. He made a really big move
wide around the turn and the way the bias was playing (Saturday) we had no
chance to catch the leader. But I thought overall it was a really big effort
from him.”
Trainer Chad Brown returned to New York last night after sending out SILVER
TIMBER (Prime Timber) to win the Woodford S. (G3) for the second consecutive
year. On Sunday, groom Geraldo Ortiz said the seven-year-old gray gelding “came
out of the race good. He’s walking like a champ this morning.”
Silver Timber, whom Brown claimed for $25,000 in 2009, won Keeneland’s
Shakertown S. (G3) in April at the same 5 1/2-furlong distance as the Woodford.
The gelding, who has earned $677,619 in his career, is expected to remain at
Keeneland and continue training toward the five-furlong Breeders’ Cup Turf
Sprint (G2) on November 6 at Churchill Downs. Silver Timber set Churchill’s
five-furlong course record when he won the Churchill Downs Turf Sprint (G3) in
late April.