Jerkens hopes decision to rest Green Light Go pays off later

Green Light Go, Stronach Stables’ Saratoga Special (G2) winner, has been spending some downtime on the farm in Ocala, Fla., before returning to trainer Jimmy Jerkens.

“He’s not far from a breeze,” Jerkens said this week. “I’m not really worried about him. He’s one of those rare horses. He comes to hand quickly. He did as a 2-year old, and he already has a good mile race under his belt, so I’m not worried about him being inactive right now.” The son of Hard Spun won at first asking on July 4 at Belmont Park before becoming a graded stakes winner a month later at Saratoga. He subsequently finished second in Oct. 5 Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park, after which Jerkens and his team elected to rest the colt for his 3-year-old campaign. “Coming out of the Champagne I thought he was getting a little too light in the flesh and he was starting to get a little nervous,” Jerkens said. Green Light Go suffered his first defeat when beaten by Tiz the Law by four lengths after going off as the slight post time favorite. “We made an early decision not to send him out to California to run in the Breeders’ Cup,” Jerkens said. “Once we did that, we figured we might as well send him to Ocala for a while, give him a month and a half or so. “We thought it would be beneficial for him in the long run if he had a break right then.” As far as a next race spot, and Green Light Go’s run down the 2020 Kentucky Derby trail, “We haven’t really mapped anything out definitively,” Jerkens said. The barn’s lone prior Derby starter, 2014’s fourth-place finisher Wicked Strong, prepped in Gulfstream Park’s Holy Bull and Aqueduct’s Wood Memorial.