Quality Road headed Todd Pletcher’s worktab on Sunday
morning, breezing five furlongs in preparation for the November 6 Breeders’ Cup
Classic at Churchill Downs. Sent over the Belmont Park
training track with Grade 3-winning grass runner Pleasant Strike, Quality Road was
clocked in 1:01.06, which Pletcher termed “an exceptionally good work with a
very strong gallop-out.”
Also working over the training track for Pletcher were
Repole Stable’s Grade 1 Three Chimneys Hopeful runner-up Stay Thirsty (5f
1:02.12), who is also looking toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. On the main
track, Grade 1 winner Bribon, most recently sixth in the Forego closing
weekend at Saratoga and under consideration for supplementation to either the
Breeders’ Cup Sprint or Dirt Mile, covered four furlongs in 48.92, while New
York-breds Ibboyee (4f 49.73) and Manteca (4f 49.71) worked
toward the October 23 Empire Classic.
In other notable works, Godolphin Stable sent out Gayego to
breeze four furlongs in 47.44, the second-fastest of 46 works at the distance.
Gayego, who followed a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt
Handicap this summer at Saratoga
with a win in the Presque Isle Mile on September 10, is being pointed toward
the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. Also on the worktab for Godolphin was Vineyard
Haven, who worked five furlongs in 1:00.97, also in preparation for a
likely start in the Dirt Mile.
Grade 3 Noble Damsel winner Strike the Bell turned in
her final serious work for next Saturday’s Grade 3 Athenia, breezing a
half-mile over the training track in 48.89. Also under consideration for the
Athenia is Maram, who was clocked over the inner turf in a bullet
1:02.03 five-furlong move.