Mind Control answers 'two-turn question' in Breeders' Futurity
Red Oak Stable and Madaket Stables’ Hopeful Stakes (G1) winner Mind Control got his first feel of Keeneland’s racing surface Wednesday morning ahead of a run at Saturday's Grade 1, $500,000 Breeders' Futurity.
It's a “Win and You’re In” race for the $2 million Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) to be run Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs and also offers points for toward the 2019 Kentucky Derby.
Rick Sacco, brother of trainer Greg Sacco, is overseeing the colt’s preparation here.
“His son is a high school quarterback and has a game Friday night in New Jersey, so he will be flying in Saturday morning,” Rick Sacco said about his brother.
Mind Control began his career with a runner-up finish at Delaware Park going 5½ furlongs before breaking his maiden at Monmouth Park at 6 furlongs. Then came his victory in the 7-furlong Hopeful at Saratoga.
“He is a very smart horse, and you need that for a horse going to a fourth track in as many starts,” Sacco said. “We came here (instead of this weekend’s Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont Park) because we wanted to answer the two-turn question now.
“The Champagne is a one-turn mile with the long run down the backstretch. The timing is right now to try two turns. His daddy (StayThirsty) won the Travers and there is plenty of two-turn pedigree there.”
Mind Control, who worked a bullet five-eighths in :59.80 at Monmouth on Saturday, will be ridden by John Velazquez. He had the mount for the first time in the Hopeful.
Sacco is hoping for a better outcome Saturday than he had here in 2009 when the stable's Piscitelli finished fifth in the Breeders’ Futurity.
“I was in the grandstand, and he was dead last in a field of 14 when he passed me the first time,” Sacco said. “He wound up finishing fifth. Then he went to the Breeders’ Cup (at Santa Anita) and finished fourth (in the Juvenile). That was one reason we came here because the tracks (Keeneland and Santa Anita at the time) had the all-weather surfaces.”
Win or lose Saturday, Sacco said the plan is to return to Monmouth Park the next day. Should a Breeders’ Cup run be in the cards, Sacco said Mind Control would ship to Louisville 10 days before the championships and have one work over the track.