It’s Tricky, impressive 3 ¾-length winner of the Grade 1 TVG Acorn at
Belmont Park on June 11, is gearing up for a start in the Grade 1 TVG Coaching
Club American Oaks during Saratoga Race Course’s opening weekend on Saturday,
July 23.
She had her first official workout
since the Acorn on Thursday at Belmont, going four furlongs in 49.04, 10th-fastest
of 22 works at the distance.
“She worked great and is doing
fabulous right now,” said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin of the Darley Stable filly.
“Her performance in the Acorn was scary good.”
McLaughlin explained that the
temperamental 3-year-old daughter of 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft often lives
up to her name.
“She is a little tricky, ‘It’s
Tricky,’ she’s tricky,” he joked. “We have to lead her out to the track every
day with a pony. Sometimes she backs up and might spin around and drop the
rider and not want to go.
“We were actually concerned in
Florida because she was doing everything too well. She was not being tricky,
but now she is back at Belmont and being tricky again.”
In her lone start in Florida, It’s
Tricky was fourth, beaten 22 ¼ lengths in the Gulfstream Park Oaks on April 2,
her only loss in five career starts. She has won her other four races by a
combined margin of 18 ¼ lengths.
McLaughlin indicated that they may
wait to ship her to Saratoga shortly before the July 23 Coaching Club because
of her unique personality.
“She is doing better but we will not
move her up to Saratoga until maybe two weeks, or five days, or even a day out
from the race,” McLaughlin said. “We don’t want to change her location if we
don’t have to ... she is that tricky.”
No such problems exist for Trappe Shot, 8 ½-length victor of the Grade 2 True North Handicap presented by
Emirates Airline on June 11, and pointing for the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt
Handicap on Sunday, August 7 at Saratoga.
“He’s doing great and is very
straightforward to train and be around,” said McLaughlin of the 4-year-old
Tapit colt. “He will go up to Saratoga as normal for the Vanderbilt.”
The trainer believes that he could
have a potential Champion Sprinter in the Mill House-owned colt.
“Absolutely he could be Champion
Sprinter,” said McLaughlin. “He ran huge in the True North and we wouldn’t
trade places with anyone going a mile or less.”
According to the trainer, Trappe
Shot, who has not worked since the True North, will likely have three breezes
leading up to the Vanderbilt.