The Lumber Guy eyes repeat, Strapping Groom looks to stay
hot in Vosburgh
Before climbing aboard The Lumber Guy prior to his final work for Saturday’s
Grade 1, $400,000 Vosburgh Invitational, jockey Mike Luzzi had one question for
trainer Mike Hushion.
The 39-year-old Luzzi, a winner of more than 3,000 career races, had ridden
the son of Grand Slam twice before, both last spring, including a win in the
Grade 2 Jerome at Aqueduct Racetrack. He will be back aboard for the Vosburgh.
“I asked Mike, ‘Is he the same horse?'” Luzzi said. “And he said, ‘Hopefully,
he’s better.'”
Luzzi and The Lumber Guy blazed through a half-mile breeze in 46 3/5 seconds
on Monday over the main track at Belmont, the fastest of 69 horses at the
distance.
“It was real easy on him and, honestly, I didn’t think I went that fast,”
Luzzi said. “I didn’t let him do anything, and that’s what he ended up working
in. It’s a fast track in the mornings right after the break, but he did it all
on his own.”
Luzzi said he could feel a difference in The Lumber Guy, who won the Vosburgh
last year and ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint before a pair of
off-the-board finishes in California.
He enters the Vosburgh off a runner-up finish in the August 23 Chowder’s
First at Saratoga.
“He’s a lot different. He’s bigger, stronger and better than when I had been
on him before,” Luzzi said. “When I won on him, he was just OK; he probably
hadn’t grown completely yet. He looks like a sprinter now. He feels like one
and, of course, he works like one.”
Hushion turned to Luzzi to replace Hall of Famer John Velazquez, who is
committed to ride Justin Phillip in the Vosburgh.
“He’s ridden him before, and he’s ridden him well in the past,” Hushion said.
“It was as simple as that. He’s a veteran. He’s not going to get rattled by a
big purse in a Grade 1.”
Trainer David Jacobson has never run a horse in the Breeders’ Cup, but he has
a top prospect in Grade 1 winner Strapping Groom.
A six-year-old son of 2001 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Johannesburg,
Strapping Groom enters the Vosburgh in career-best form, recording his first
graded stakes victory in the Grade 1 Forego last time out.
The Vosburgh is a “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in
November at Santa Anita Park. Both races are contested at six furlongs.
“It’s race by race. The horse will let us know how he is and what he’s ready
to do,” Jacobson said. “It’s definitely in the back of our heads, the Breeders’
Cup. It would be very exciting to go out west. Just the fact that you’re asking
me that question is very exciting. We’re definitely thinking about it but,
again, one race at a time.”
Co-owned by Jacobson with Drawing Away Stable, Strapping Groom has won three
of four starts since being claimed for $35,000 in May, including the Forego and
Kid Russell Stakes at Saratoga in his two previous starts. He also captured the
Lion Cavern on June 16 at Belmont Park.
“He had some issues going back, that’s why I was able to get him in a
claiming race,” Jacobson said. “We work on him just like we do with our other
horses, and some horses respond better than others. He seems to be one that’s
really responded very well.
“It’s exciting, I’ll tell ya,” he added. “You’ve got to pinch yourself.”
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