Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said this morning that multiple Grade 1
winner It’s Tricky will most
likely make her next start at Saratoga Race Course, either in the Grade 1
Ballerina on August 24 or the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on August 26.
“She’ll work tomorrow morning but my gut feeling is that
she’ll skip the Delaware Handicap,” said McLaughlin of It’s
Tricky, winner of the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps last time out. “It’s 1
1/4 miles, the track is tiring, and she doesn’t ship all that well. So
that’s doubtful, and we’ll look at the seven-furlong [Ballerina] or
the 1 1/8-mile [Personal Ensign].”
Last year at Saratoga,
the Mineshaft filly won the Grade 1 TVG Coaching Club American Oaks and was
runner-up to Royal Delta in the Grade 1 Alabama.
Opening weekend at the Spa could be a busy one for McLaughlin, who is
looking at Friday’s Grade 3 James Marvin for Crossbow and Saturday’s Grade 1 TVG Coaching Club
American Oaks as a possibility for Questing.
Fifth in the Grade 2 True North Handicap on June 9 in his most recent
start off a 3 ½-month layoff, Crossbow worked four furlongs in a brisk 47.23
this morning at the Greentree training center in Saratoga.
“He’s doing great,” said McLaughlin of the 4-year-old
Bernardini colt, who won his first two starts this year, both in optional
claimers, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Questing, who was fourth and fifth in two turf starts for McLaughlin at
Gulfstream Park, returned to the dirt at Belmont on June 24 and was an
impressive 3 ¾-length winner in a one-mile optional claimer.
“She ran huge that day,” said McLaughlin of Questing, who
began her career in England.
“If she ran that race back, she would look pretty good. And sometimes, it’s
OK to be third in a Grade 1.”
McLaughlin said the Hard Spun filly would work tomorrow morning, after
which a decision would be made.
The trainer added that Grade 3 Withers winner Alpha, unraced since finishing 12th
in the Kentucky Derby, would likely make his next start in the Grade 2 Jim
Dandy on July 28.