LoPresti looking to avoid handicaps
for Wise Dan next year
Charles LoPresti, trainer of reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan, has yet to
taste defeat at Woodbine and is considering spending more time at the Toronto
oval in 2014.
LoPresti, perfect through two Woodbine starts, won the 2011 edition of the $1
million Woodbine Mile with Turallure and retained the title last year with Wise
Dan.
Although based in Kentucky, LoPresti is considering using Woodbine’s King
Edward Stakes, a one-mile turf event held this year on June 23 when won by Mile
rival Riding the River, as a potential stop on the superstar’s 2014 campaign.
“I think his (Wise Dan) toughest race this year was at Churchill in the
Firecracker,” said LoPresti, of the one-mile turf race held on June 29. “For as
little money as he ran for he had to carry the top weight of 128 pounds on a
tough course.
“If I had it to do all over again, I probably would have brought him to
Canada and run him in the King Edward. It was for more money and it wasn’t a
handicap race, so I’m going to reconsider what I do with him next year. I don’t
want to put weight on him if I don’t have to. The race (at Woodbine) is a
C$200,000 race as opposed to $150,000, without having to carry all the weight.”
Carrying 128 pounds over yielding turf in the Firecracker Handicap ensured
that the victorious Wise Dan would inevitably carry more weight next time out in
the Fourstardave Handicap at Saratoga, which the gelding won carrying an
additional pound over a good turf.
“When we put that weight on him in the Firecracker, it set a precedent for
the rest of the year and he had to carry more weight in the Fourstardave,”
LoPresti acknowledged. “We’ll carry 126 pounds in the Woodbine Mile, and he
won’t be giving such a spread to the other horses. That’s the biggest concern.
It’s not the weight, it’s the spread.”
Wise Dan breezed four furlongs in :48 1/5 Tuesday morning at Keeneland in his
final tune up for the race.
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