Barn Tour: Pletcher has plans for Pegasus winners, Derby hopes
It was the rarest of winter Saturdays for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Trying to win his 17th consecutive winter-meet championship at Gulfstream Park, he was shut out on a big race day there.
Don’t feel sorry for Pletcher. His 0-for-13 Fountain of Youth day may have left him eight wins behind Saffie Joseph Jr. But with four weeks left in the season and a stable deep in well-bred talent, he still has a chance to capture the Gulfstream title for the 18th time in 19 years.
Pletcher still owns the two biggest victories of the current meet with Life Is Good finishing first in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) and Colonel Liam winning his second consecutive $1 million Pegasus Turf (G1). The two millionaires have a March 29 date in the Middle East to more than double their career earnings on Dubai World Cup night.
In an interview last week for the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, those two horses were as good a place as any to anchor a Horse Racing Nation Barn Tour with Pletcher.
Life Is Good and Colonel Liam. Both worked out on schedule Friday at Palm Beach Downs. “One more breeze before they hopefully get on a plane for Dubai to run in the mile-and-an-eighth ($6 million Dubai Turf, G1) with Colonel Liam and, of course, the Dubai World Cup ($20 million, G1) with Life Is Good,” Pletcher said. The 4-year-old colt Life Is Good, whose three-race winning streak includes the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, was clocked at a handy 59.23 seconds in his five-furlong work, the best of three at that distance. Colonel Liam, the 5-year-old horse who has won five of his last six starts including three Grade 1s, went six furlongs in 1:02.72, roughly the pace he has gone in his works this winter.
Mo Donegal. An outside draw and a mild fever conspired to get him scratched from Saturday’s Fountain of Youth (G2). “Hopefully, we can get back on course for the Wood (Memorial, G2),” Pletcher said, referring to the 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby points race April 9 at Aqueduct. “He’s been responding to treatment, so hopefully that will continue to be the case. It’s a case of better now than later on when we’re that much closer to the Derby.” After winning the Remsen (G2) in December, the Uncle Mo colt finished third last month in the Holy Bull (G2) at Gulfstream.
Commandperformance. Coming back from a fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the Union Rags colt has had weekly breezes since the beginning of February as he is prepared for his 3-year-old debut. “We’re really pleased with the way he’s coming back,” Pletcher said. “He’s probably a couple of works away, and he’s still eligible for a maiden race. What we’re hoping to do with him is get him a maiden race, do well there and step out into a graded stakes after that and hopefully a Derby prep.” Commandperformance’s best result was a second-place finish to Jack Christopher in the Champagne (G1) on Oct. 2 at Belmont Park.
Major General. He was the first winner on the Derby trail when he scored in the September running of the Iroquois (G3). He has not raced since, but he has not missed a workout since he came back from a late autumn break, and his 3-year-old debut is set for Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2), a 50-20-10-5 Derby points qualifier. “He’s on target,” Pletcher said.
Charge It. Mandy Pope’s homebred colt by Tapit would be 2-for-2 if not for a neck loss to Volcanic in his January debut. After coming back to break his maiden by 8 1/2 lengths in a dirt mile Feb. 12 at Gulfstream and with two breezes since, Charge It is poised to make a move onto the Derby trail. But where? Pletcher has not said yet, although Charge It was nominated for next month’s Blue Grass Stakes (G1) at Keeneland.
Wit. An eight-length victory last summer in the Sanford (G3) at Saratoga was more than a blip on the juvenile radar. The $575,000 Practical Joke colt followed that with a distant second to Gunite in the Hopeful (G1) and an even more distant third to Jack Christopher and stablemate Commandperformance in the Champagne. A four-month break followed. “Wit just started back,” Pletcher said. “He just had his first breeze for us and looks good, but obviously he’s way behind schedule to make a race like the Derby. He’s a horse maybe that, if things go according to plan, could make his first start back in the beginning of April in a race like the Lafayette, seven furlongs at Keeneland (April 8), or a race like the Bay Shore at Aqueduct (seven furlongs April 9). We’re pretty much focused on what most likely will be sprint to mile races with him. As far as the Derby picture, we’re probably behind schedule.”
American Icon. After losing to In Due Time by 5 3/4 lengths in a $61,000 allowance Feb. 4 at Gulfstream, this $400,000 Gun Runner colt who won his debut race Dec. 26 was taken off the Derby trail. “We backed off him a little bit,” Pletcher said. “He’s going to get a short breather at WinStar (Farm in Kentucky), and we’ll pick him up when we get back to Keeneland and see how that goes.”
Goddess of Fire. She looked like a 15-1 winner last month in the Rachel Alexandra (G2) at Fair Grounds. That was before Turnerloose at 18-1 made a bold move to catch her at the wire. Asked whether he would keep the Mineshaft filly on the Kentucky Oaks trail, Pletcher said, “We haven’t decided that for sure yet. We’re very pleased with the way she ran in Louisiana. That puts herself in a good position to have options to go back to possibly look at the Gulfstream Oaks (G2, April 2) or even the Ashland (G1, April 8 at Keeneland) or the Gazelle (G2, April 9 at Aqueduct) a week later. We need a little more time. We’ll get her back breezing (this week) and firm up a game plan as we see how she trains and see how some of these other races shape up.”
Oh, one more thing. Since Pletcher has practically owned the training title for a generation at Gulfstream, what was his opinion when the Tapeta surface was installed between the dirt and turf tracks?
“Mixed feelings,” he said. “One of my concerns coming in was how it could potentially hurt some of our dirt fields. I’m not sure that I’ve seen that, but it was a concern, especially when we start splitting up the maidens and the three categories. I feel like we’ve maybe had a few less maiden special-weight, dirt opportunities than we have in the past. We’ve also had some success on it. We’ve had some horses in the races come off the turf that have performed fine on it. We’ve had others that didn’t seem to care for it. I think as the meet has gone along, we’ve been able to identify the horses that do like it. It seems like we’ve had a little bit of success here in the last couple of weeks.”