Doug O’Neill hopes He’s Had Enough advances on the learning curve
when he makes his 3-year-old debut in the first step of what could lead
to the Triple Crown trail in Saturday’s Grade II Robert B. Lewis Stakes.
He’s Had Enough worked six furlongs in company with Pennsylvania
Derby winner Handsome Mike Friday under Mario Gutierrez in 1:11, but the
time was deceptive because the gray son of Tapit had to persevere to
keep up with the 4-year-old Handsome Mike.
“Mario’s gotten to know the horse,” O’Neill said, alluding to two
races in which the jockey rode the gray son of Tapit, a second by a
head to Eclipse Award winner Shanghai Bobby in the Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile, and an eventful fifth in the Grade I CashCall Futurity last
Dec. 15.
“He’s a horse that doesn’t apply himself,” O’Neill said of the
colt owned by J. Paul Reddam. “You have to stay after him to keep him to
his task. About mid-work Friday, Mario said he could feel him coming
off the bridle and stop trying.
“So he got after him, he finished up good and came out of it
great. I think the more Mario gets to know him, the better we’re going
to see him.”