The last time Trinniberg raced at Saratoga, he was the
longest shot in the field, sent off at nearly 70-1 in last year’s Grade 1 Three
Chimneys Hopeful. His return to the Spa in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Foxwoods
King’s Bishop likely is to be quite different, with three graded stakes wins
since then, including the Grade 3 Bay Shore at Aqueduct Racetrack in April and
the Grade 2 Woody Stephens at Belmont Park in June.
The son of Teuflesberg breezed
three furlongs from the gate under regular rider Willie Martinez in 35.56
seconds on Friday morning, the second-fastest at the distance over the main
track. Trinniberg worked in company with Nick Rules.
“I didn’t want him to go to the
gate by himself,” explained Shivananda Parbhoo, the colt’s owner. Trinniberg is
trained by Parbhoo’s father, Bisnath Parboo.
Though Trinniberg has no history
of gate problems, Parbhoo wanted him to get “a little sharper” for his upcoming
start.
“He’s a front-runner,” he said.
“They’re going to have come catch him, and this is what I wanted, just to get
him on edge a little more. He went really fast, which is good.”
Trinniberg is coming off a neck
loss in the Grade 3 Carry Back on July 7 at Calder Race Course, a race in which
he dueled with eventual winner Fort Loudon to the wire. Despite the early
speed in that race, Parbhoo said his horse came back fine.
“We were not totally ready for
that race; I wasn’t even supposed to run in it,” he said. “But we’re based in
south Florida
[at Calder] and we helped them out. Unfortunately, we got beat.”