Trainer Neil Pessin, who saddled Team Block’s Never Retreat
for trainer Chris Block while he was at Hawthorne Race Course to send
out Giant Oak in the Hawthorne Gold Cup (G2), said the 6-year-old mare
came out of her victory in the race in good shape.
“That
was the first Grade 1 win for the Blocks,” Pessin said of the ownership
of David, Patricia and Ryan Block. “Now we’ve got one more to go,”
Pessin added, referring to Team Block’s Askbut I Won’ttell, who is here preparing for the Rood & Riddle Dowager at 1½ miles on the turf to be run October 23.
Pessin said Never Retreat will not go to the Breeders’ Cup.
“She
doesn’t want to go a mile and three-eighths (the distance of the Grade 1
Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf), and she doesn’t
want to run against the boys (in the Grade 1 TVG Breeders’ Cup Mile),”
Pessin said.
Trainer Graham Motion said Daveron (GER) and Gypsy’s Warning (SAF) came out of their respective third- and sixth-place finishes in the First Lady in good order.
“They
both seem fine this morning,” Motion said. “I thought Daveron ran well,
but she did not like being down on the inside. But you can’t take
anything away from the winner (Never Retreat). She had to break from the
outside and she had just run three weeks ago.” Motion said that a
Breeders’ Cup run for either mare was unlikely. “They are both in the
November (Breeding Stock) sale here and we have not really planned on
it.”