The Todd Pletcher-trained Verrazano jogged Thursday morning while preparing
for his final career start in Friday’s Dirt Mile.
Pletcher expressed his opinion that the son of More Than Ready is still in
the mix for the three-year-old Eclipse Award under a set of circumstances that
must include an impressive triumph in the Dirt Mile.
“His Haskell, to me, is the strongest single performance by a three-year-old
this year,” Pletcher said. “We’re hoping for another one like that.”
Trainer Ken McPeek has chosen the Dirt Mile rather than Saturday’s Classic
for Golden Ticket. Last year, he had also skipped the Classic in lieu of the
Hollywood Derby with his 2012 Travers Stakes dead-heat winner.
“We think the Dirt Mile gives him the best chance to win,” McPeek said. “If
he had run better in the Awesome Again Stakes here (when fourth), we would have
gone in the Classic. He ran well, but not quite good enough. And, pedigree-wise,
a mile is probably better from him. He won the Travers at a mile and a quarter,
but that distance is probably not for him.”
Ironically, Golden Ticket will renew rivalry with the colt who shared the
Travers spoils — Alpha. The Godolphin Racing colorbearer galloped 1 3/8 mles
Thursday morning before heading for schooling sessions in the gate and the
paddock.
Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin could not be more pleased with the dual Grade 1
winner, who added the Woodward to his resume two starts back at his beloved
Saratoga.
“The Woodward (in the slop) was the best race of his life; everything went
well for him. He broke well and everything went perfectly,” he said. “He’s doing
very well and is happy, so we hope he runs well. We were looking for a little
rain and that sure wouldn’t have hurt.”
Joe Bravo rode Alpha for the first time in his last race, a sixth in the
Jockey Club Gold Cup, and gets the return call.
“Joe learned a little bit about him, so now he feels he knows him and that
could help a little bit,” McLaughlin said. “Johnny (Velazquez) would have been
our first choice but he was already taken (for Verrazano). But Joe is good in
the gate, he’s good out of the gate, and he’s a smart rider so we’re pleased.
We’ve got to break right and be in the right spot, but we don’t know yet what
that’s going to be. We’ll leave it up to Joe to work it out.”
Pool Play, who runs in Friday’s Marathon, is a feast-or-famine type, as
trainer Mark Casse admitted.
“Honestly, I just never know when he’s going to show up or when he doesn’t,”
Casse said. “When he shows up he’s good, when he doesn’t he’s not. I really
don’t know what kind of mood he’s in.”
It was pointed out that the eight-year-old millionaire is the most senior of
all of this year’s Breeders’ Cup contenders.
“Really? Well, we know we’re going to win something — oldest,” Casse said
with a smile.
Casse has saddled 15 previous Breeders’ Cup horses and is looking for his
first victory.
Marathon rival Old Time Hockey arouses curiosity about his name.
“We’re big time hockey fans from Chicago,” Glen Hill Farm President Craig
Bernick said. “‘Old time hockey’ is one of the famous and great lines from the
movie ‘Slapshot’ with Paul Newman.
“We love the (Chicago) Blackhawks, and the year this colt was born was the
same year they won the Stanley Cup (in 2010 after a 49-year draught). He was one
of our best colts that year, and since I always wanted to name a horse Old Time
Hockey, he was the one.”
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