All In Stable’s Willcox Inn,
bidding to become the fourth horse in Thoroughbred racing history to sweep
Arlington Park’s Mid-America Triple with a win in Saturday’s Grade I
Secretariat Stakes, breezed four furlongs in 50.80 over Arlington’s world
famous turf course Sunday morning under assistant trainer Hilary Pridham in
preparation for the event. The sophomore son of Harlan’s Holiday
trained by Mike Stidham galloped out five-eighths in 1:03.
Willcox Inn worked in company
with Saturday’s pre-entered Grade I Beverly D. runner Upperline, owned by Stone
Farm, John Adger, Oak Crest Farm and Mike Stidham and trained by Stidham, who
had jockey James Graham in the irons and got the half in 51.40 and galloped out
five furlongs in 1:03.60.
Glen Hill Farm’s Banned, one
of Willcox Inn’s main rivals in the Secretariat who won Churchill’s Grade III
Jefferson Cup and Grade III American Turf earlier this year, worked five
furlongs over the grass in 1:05 and galloped out three-quarters in 1:19.
Following a brief but sudden
shower that caused some Festival candidates’ scheduled turf works to be
transferred to the Polytrack, Team Block’s Beverly D. pre-entry Never Retreat
went five furlongs in 1:03.80 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:17.20 under
jockey Eddie Perez.
Team Block and Richard Ege’s
Secretariat Stakes pre-entry Suntracer went five-eighths in 1:01.80 with an
exercise rider aboard and then galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.
Michael Deegan’s Pachattack,
pre-entered for the Beverly D., went six furlongs in 1:12 after early splits of
36 and 1:06 flat, and Naipaul and Terikchand Chatterpaul’s Arlington Million
pre-entry Mission Approved galloped once around the Polytrack.
ARLINGTON’S
FAB-5 ACTIVE JOCKEYS FINALIZED TO FACE RETIRED RIVALS
Arlington’s “Fab-5”
active riders slated to face five retired jockey greats in a Friday’s special
race as part of Arlington’s
“Dining with the Dynasty” festivities became official at the conclusion of
Saturday’s race day.
Heading that list of active
jockeys was Arlington’s
leading jockey at the time – J. Z. Santana – who was followed closely by James
Graham, runner-up with one less win at the conclusion of Saturday’s
races. The top five jockeys were completed by Eddie Perez, E. T. Baird
and Junior Alvarado, third, fourth and fifth respectively at the time.
Alvarado, Arlington’s
jockey champion in 2009 and runner-up rider in 2010, lost five weeks of
activity with a broken collarbone earlier this summer.