Six days out from
the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap, three leading contenders hit the track Sunday
morning to turn in their final breezes prior to the 1 1/8-mile race.
Mike Repole’s Stay Thirsty,
working in company with Rule,
breezed five furlongs on the main track in 1:00.05 with Javier Castellano
aboard. Winner of the 2011 Grade 1 Travers, Stay Thirsty has made one start in
2012, a second to Suburban hopeful Trickmeister
in the Vanlandingham overnight stakes on May 17 at Belmont.
“I thought he worked really well,” said trainer Todd Pletcher.
“Both this work and the one before were like what we saw before the
Travers. He’s in good form.”
To Honor and Serve and
exercise rider Rudolphe Brisset took to the training track to turn in a 47.56
four-furlong breeze, the third quickest of 62 workouts at the distance. A
five-time graded stakes winner whose resume includes a victory in last
year’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap, the Live Oak homebred looks to regain
the winning thread after finishing third in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap
on May 28.
“If all goes well and he comes out of the work happy and is
feeling good, then we’ll run him in the Suburban,” said Hall of
Fame trainer Bill Mott. “Hopefully he’ll run well and come back in
good enough shape to run in the Whitney [Grade 1, August 4, Saratoga Race
Course].”
In a separate four-furlong breeze on the training track, Al Khali, Brous Stable and Wachtel Stable’s
contender for the Grade 1 Man o’ War on July 14, was clocked in 47.50.
Mott said he also has James S. Karp’s Newsdad
under consideration for the race.
In her first workout since her dominant victory in the Grade 2 Fleur de
Lis on June 16, Benjamin Leon’s Royal
Delta traveled four furlongs on the main track in 48.29.
“Nice and smooth,” said Mott. “She did it easy, in
hand, striding along. Seems happy.”
Completing the list of Suburban workers was Stuart S. Janney,
III’s Grade 1 Donn Handicap winner Hymn
Book, who was clocked going four furlongs on the main track in
47.05, the second fastest of 71 moves.
“He’s coming into the race great,” said Buzz Tenney,
assistant to Hall of Fame trainer ShugMcGaughey. “He’s an honest,
hard-trying horse, and he’ll give a good account of himself.”
Point of Entry,
victorious in the Grade 2 Elkhorn and a probable for the Man o’ War for
McGaughey and owner Phipps Stable, posted a 1:00.96 five-furlong breeze on the
inner turf.