Champion turf horse World Approval gets new target race
One of four horses scratched from the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes, a Preakness undercard event moved off the turf, champion World Approval is back at his Churchill Downs base with a new target race set.
Nicholas Tomlinson, assistant to trainer Mark Casse, said Wednesday morning that World Approval is pointing to the Grade 2, $200,000 Wise Dan Stakes run at 1 1/16 miles on Stephen Foster Handicap night.
A 6-year-old son of Northern Afleet, World Approval won four straight races before finishing fifth last out in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita Park.
“Mark said that we maybe rushed him back a little bit into it,” Tomlinson said. “Maybe he didn’t handle that. You never know. They can’t speak to us, right? You wish they could say, ‘This is what happened, and this is what I want to do.’ But you’ve just got to get into their minds and figure out what they want to do.
“That’s what we’ve kind of done, and seems like he’s back to his normal self now. I guess we’ll figure out in a couple weeks whether he is.”
The gray World Approval is due to return to the work tab this weekend. In his last breeze, back on May 13, Tomlinson said the horse “fought tooth and nail” with a workmate, indicating he’s returning to form that won World Approval the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
That victory marked a third straight Grade 1 victory for the Live Oak Plantation charge and led to his Eclipse Award. His next out race under the Twin Spires will mark World Approval’s first start at Churchill since a runner-up finish in the 2016 Turf Classic (G1) on Kentucky Derby day.
Overall, world Approval sports a 12-2-4 record from 26 starts. He has banked more than $3 million and runs his best at a mile, meaning a try at the $1 million Manhattan (G1) going 10 furlongs on Belmont Stakes day appears a bit long for the champ.
Tomlinson said that from the Casse barn, Awesome Slew could appear in the Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at a mile, Salty may go in the Ogden Phipps (G1) for older fillies and mares, and La Coronel could enter the Longines Just a Game (G1) also on turf.