Trainer Tom Albertrani is sitting on a trio of talented
3-year-old colts and the prospect of an exciting summer ahead.
Leading that group is Padua Stables’ lightly raced Odysseus,
among the top 2010 Triple Crown prospects before going to the sidelines with a
left knee injury after finishing last in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at
Keeneland on April 10.
“From the reports I get he’s doing very well and we hope he’ll
be back in training in about thirty days,” Albertrani said Sunday
morning. “The injury wasn’t as bad as we first thought, he might have done
a little damage to the ligament in the front of his knee, but the reports are very,
very good.”
Odysseus began his career at Aqueduct last fall, finishing
second after being bumped at the start in a maiden race on Halloween.
Brought back at Gulfstream Park
in January, he broke his maiden at second asking and went on win an allowance
contest at Tampa Bay Downs by 15 lengths in his third start. In March,
the Malibu Moon colt won an exhilarating renewal of the Grade 3 Tampa Bay
Derby, appearing beaten in the stretch but coming back late to win in a photo
with Schoolyard Dreams.
A new addition to Albertrani’s barn is Jack T. Hammer’s Ron
the Greek, who worked three furlongs in 39.12 over the Belmont
main track Wednesday morning.
Previously trained by Tom Amoss, the horse had not worked
since a sixth-place finish in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby on March 27.
“He came in with a quarter crack so we had to nurse the foot
a little,” Albertrani said. “We’ll see how he does over the next couple
of weeks and then think about a schedule for him. I don’t think there’s
any possibility of making the Belmont Stakes; the time frame just doesn’t look
as though it will work out. To go a mile and a half off of a 39 work the
other day, I don’t think so. I’m not Nick Zito. I can’t win the Belmont
off that.”
Albertrani was also optimistic about future prospects for
Cocalero, who won first out at Belmont
on Saturday afternoon.
“The horse who won yesterday is a nice colt and looks like a
promising three-year-old,’ Albertrani said. “Towards the end of the
summer, we could have some exciting things going on.”
Albertrani added that multiple graded-stakes winning turf
filly Gozzip Girl could make her 4-year-old debut in either the Grade 2,
$150,000 Sheepshead Bay
on May 22, or the Grade 2, $150,000 New York Breeders’ Cup on June 19.