Speaking of Bluegrass Cat... he and Sunriver both got their works in this morning. Jazil will not have a final breeze before the Belmont. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin inspected the training track at the same time as Pletcher and decided to cancel Jazil's final Belmont breeze. McLaughlin said Jazil will instead gallop up to the race.
Bluegrass Cat worked five furlongs in 1:01.72, while Sunriver worked the same distance in 1:00.24.
Bluegrass Cat, who has not raced since finishing 6 ˝ lengths behind Barbaro in the Derby, worked by himself and was clocked galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.89 and seven furlongs in 1:28.57.
Pletcher maintained the "less is more" approach that he incorporated after Bluegrass Cat finished fourth as the favorite in the Blue Grass Stakes (G1) on April 15 at Keeneland Race Course in his final prep for the Derby.
"I thought he was well in-hand throughout," Pletcher said. "The one thing we've tried to be conscious of because of the way he worked before the Blue Grass, which was pretty fast, is to try to do a little less with him as opposed to a little more in his works.
"Trying to analyze the Blue Grass is probably the hardest thing you can do training horses, because you don't know if anything really matters other than who handles the surface. He went an easy [half-mile] a week before the Derby and he seemed to respond by running well. Who knows, maybe if he had run somewhere other than Keeneland the fast works would have worked fine."
Sunriver worked in company with Grade 1 winner Adieu in his first breeze since winning the Peter Pan by a neck over Lewis Michael on May 20 at Belmont.
"Sunriver I was a little afraid to work by himself for this big of a race because he's always worked in company," Pletcher said. "We got a little more solid work, which you would expect in a company situation. I thought his Peter Pan was the perfect prep for the Belmont."
Bluegrass Cat and Sunriver were the only Belmont contenders to work at the track on Monday. The final drill for Aqueduct-based High Finance also was postponed until Tuesday.
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06-05-2006, 03:43 PM
Hybrid Mode
