Acting
Happy, third in last month’s Grade 1 Betfair TVG Coaching Club American
Oaks, put in her final work Monday morning for this weekend’s Grade 1,
$500,000, 1 ¼-mile Betfair TVG Alabama. Guided by jockey Jose Lezcano just
after 5:30 a.m., NYRA Clockers caught the filly covering five furlongs in
1:02.64.
“I
was very happy with her work,” said Rick Dutrow, Jr., who trains the daughter
of Empire Maker for Jay Em Ess Stable. “I thought she went very well, and Jose
did, too. She’ll walk tomorrow, jog the next day, I’ll either gallop or pony
her the next day, same thing the next day and she’ll walk the day she’s in.”
Saturday’s
Betfair TVG Alabama will be Acting Happy’s sixth start this year. She broke her
maiden at first asking on January 24 at Gulfstream Park, and has not finished
outside of the trifecta in any of her starts since, including an impressive win
in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico Race Course on May 14.
Blind
Luck, winner of four Grade 1 races including the Kentucky Oaks, worked four
furlongs in 49.00 over Del
Mar’s Polytrack surface Monday morning, 22nd-fastest of 46 works at
the distance.
“She
went just fine,” said trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. “We were very pleased with
the workout.”
The
3-year-old daughter of Pollard’s Vision is expected to ship into Saratoga for the Alabama sometime Tuesday
afternoon, with her trainer arriving on Wednesday.
Trainer
Dominick Schettino and assistant Anthony Bonomo Jr. made a “spur of the moment”
decision this morning to give Brooklyn Boyz Stables’ Connie and Michael
a workout
over the Oklahoma Training Track just before a heavy downpour saturated the
area.
Connie
and Michael, who is expected to be one of the contenders in Saturday’s Grade 1
Betfair TVG Alabama, handled five furlongs in 1:01.05. It was the fourth-best
workout of 11 at the distance.
“We
were up-in-the-air about working her. It was a spur of the moment work,” Bonomo
Jr. said. “We felt coming into the race, we wanted to see where she was at with
her fitness. We were proud of the way she went. She came back to the barn with
no problems.”
Winning
a Grade 1 race at Saratoga Race Course is always a special occasion, but a
victory by Tizahit in Saturday’s $500,000 Betfair TVG Alabama would
carry extra significance for trainer George Weaver.
A
native of Louisville, Ky.,
Weaver now lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. and has an additional residence in Weston, Fla.
“It
definitely would be a thrill,” Weaver said of a possible win in the Betfair TVG
Alabama.
Weaver
realizes Tizahit will be an outsider, but notes how the daughter of Tiznow out
of a Kris S. mare has the pedigree to appreciate the race’s 1 ¼-mile distance.
“Going
into it, I know we won’t be one of the favorites,” said Weaver. “I don’t expect
to win, but if we do, it will be a cause for celebration.”