Omaha Beach 'relaxed' in breeze toward Pegasus World Cup

Fully recovered from a bruised foot, Omaha Beach returned to the work tab Sunday with his penultimate workout for the Grade 1, $3 million Pegasus World Cup.

With Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella on hand at Gulfstream Park, Omaha Beach breezed five furlongs in 1:00.42. It was the sixth-fastest of 26 at the distance. Julien Leparoux was aboard for the work.

Mandella indicated the drill was designed to be an easy maintenance move for the 4-year-old son of War Front.

“He went real nice,” Mandella said Sunday on the ThoroughbredLA radio show. “He ended up working pretty much by himself. There was no traffic around. It was just a very nice, relaxed breeze. He finished his last quarter in 24 and a fifth or something like that. We weren’t asking him for much. Just a nice medium move.”

Mandella was forced to call an audible with Omaha Beach’s training schedule when he was diagnosed with a bruised foot in mid-week. After a couple of days to recover, Omaha Beach returned to the track on Friday with new glue-on shoes for a 1 ½-mile gallop to test the foot. He subsequently received a clean bill of health and it was back to work on Sunday.

“Everything was good,” Leparoux said. “To me, it looked very nice, very smooth. He was happy doing it. It felt good. It was a good breeze, I thought.”

Omaha Beach is slated to work once more before the Pegasus, which will be the final start in the career of the multiple Grade 1 winner. The Fox Hill Farm’s color-bearer will stand stud at Spendthrift Farm in central Kentucky this breeding season.

“We’ll get another work next week, in six or seven days, and I think we’ll be ready to go,” Mandella said.

Reflecting on his expansive career training champions and Breeders' Cup winners, Mandella said Omaha Beach is as good as any horse he's ever trained.

“I’m very fortunate to have the ability to say it’s hard to put him at the top, just because there’s been some pretty good ones,” “Mandella said. “But I couldn’t put anybody over him...I would dare say any time he got beat, I probably had more to do with it then him. He’s a very good horse. One of the finest we’ve seen.”