Delgado: Ferocious looks 'very good' in Keeneland track test

Even though the fog was thick, trainer Gustavo Delgado liked what we saw through his binoculars Tuesday morning at Keeneland.

What he saw was Ferocious testing the main track for the first time since his arrival from Saratoga on Sunday.

“Everything is very, very, very good,” Delgado said of the probable favorite for Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Breeders’ Futurity.

Owned by the partnership of JR Ranch, Ramiro Restrepo, High Step Racing and Delgado’s OGMA Investments, Ferocious won at first asking at Saratoga by 7 3/4 lengths and then was a close second as the odds-on favorite in the Hopeful (G1) there on Sept. 2 despite losing his left front shoe during the race.

Delgado, who saddled Mage to victory in the 2023 Kentucky Derby, opted to bypass this weekend’s Champagne (G1) at Aqueduct going a mile for the 1 1/16-mile Breeders’ Futurity.

“He’s a baby; he needs to learn,” Delgado said. “The Champagne at a mile: That’s like going seven furlongs at Saratoga. It’s the same thing. Here he gets two turns.”

Luis Saez will have the mount Saturday and exit post position 1 in the 11-horse field. “That is good; he is very fast,” Delgado said. “The inside is no problem. The problem would have been drawing to the outside.”