Trainer George “Rusty” Arnold said his top turf filly Centre Court showed no
signs of injury following her last-place finish Saturday in the $600,000 Diana
Stakes on the inner turf course at Saratoga.
Centre Court won the Jenny Wiley this past April at Keeneland, the Honey Fox
in March at Gulfstream Park and three graded stakes last year. The four-year-old
Smart Strike filly rated in the Diana under jockey Julien Leparoux and then
tackled leader and eventual winner Laughing on the backstretch in the 1 1/8-mile
race. Instead of unleashing her routine late punch, Centre Court faded in the
drive and was beaten by 3 1/2 lengths.
“We haven’t found any problem with her,” Arnold said. “She came back well,
and we’ll move forward from there. I was very disappointed. She didn’t run up to
my expectations and didn’t run up to her ability.”
Arnold said the pace dynamic of the Diana did not favor Centre Court, who
normally is not asked to provide significant pace pressure to a leader.
“The way it set up, it went her way,” Arnold said of Laughing. “The race was
kind of a funny-run race the way it came up for all the horses except her — not
that she didn’t run a great race, because she did — and she was sitting on a
good race.”
Centre Court took seven weeks off after her win in the Jenny Wiley and
finished fourth as the beaten favorite in the Just a Game over yielding ground
at Belmont on June 8. In that race she was bottled up and checked, according to
the chart callers, but she did not rebound in the Diana.
“Something has gone a little bit wrong, and I’ve got to find out what it is,”
Arnold said. “It’s not glaring. I’ve got to get her back to the racetrack, let
her train and see what I find.”
Arnold said Centre Court would get back on the track in the next couple days,
and, if all goes well, she will be pointed toward the $250,000 Ballston Spa at 1
1/16 miles on Travers Day, August 24.
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