Rich Strike has bullet work in preparation for Alysheba

Lexington, Ky.

Rich Strike had a bullet workout Friday morning at Keeneland, but it was not enough to convince trainer Eric Reed to race him over the same track next weekend.

Instead, Reed is aiming to run last year’s 80-1 Kentucky Derby winner in the Grade 2, $600,000 Alysheba Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile race for older horses will be run May 5 on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard.

“We’re leaning heavily to the Alysheba,” Reed said Friday, confirming what was first reported by Marty McGee at Daily Racing Form.

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Reed said a firm decision probably would come Saturday after seeing how Rich Strike recovered from his pre-dawn, five-furlong breeze that was clocked at 59.8 seconds. It was the fastest of 24 works at that distance on the Keeneland tab. Reed said the six-furlong gallop-out was timed at 1:13.2 and seven furlongs in “1:26 and change.”

Yet to make his 4-year-old debut, the Keen Ice colt “worked really, really good” with exercise rider Gabriel Lagunes but not without letting Reed and his team know he worked hard.

“The only thing was he was blowing just a little bit after he got to the barn,” Reed said. “He never blows.”

That convinced Reed not to race next Saturday at Keeneland in the Ben Ali (G3), a 1 3/16-mile race for older horses.

“I knew that he probably needs that one final tune-up to be a threat for the whole thing and not just be in there,” said Reed, who also considered next Saturday’s 1 1/8-mile Oaklawn Handicap (G2). “I told Rick I could run him in the Ben Ali. I could run him down there at Oaklawn. It was going to be tough. Or we could go to Churchill and run him in the Alysheba and probably be pretty serious.”

So far Smile Happy is the only other horse listed by Horse Racing Nation as a possible starter in the Alysheba. He finished eighth to Rich Strike in the Derby, but he also has two races to his credit as a 4-year-old, including an allowance victory and a third-place finish in the Oaklawn Mile (G3).

Reed still planned to aim Rich Strike for an autumn trip to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race that resulted in a fourth-place finish in November at Keeneland. Between the Alysheba and the Breeders’ Cup, Reed has mapped out the Stephen Foster (G1) in July and the Lukas Classic (G2) in September, both at Churchill Downs.

Rich Strike has not raced since the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when he came back 20 days after the Breeders’ Cup and finished last in the Clark (G1). That was followed by a 45-day break at the Hill ’n’ Dale at Xalapa farm in nearby Paris, Ky. Aside from his workouts at Reed’s Mercury Equine Center home base, Rich Strike had three breezes on the Tapeta at Turfway Park before two this month at Keeneland.

“I think today he did what he needed,” Reed said. “He’ll get another work now probably a week from this coming Monday. … He’ll have his next work at Churchill just to get ready for that race and may just stay there until the race is over, and then he can go back to Mercury like usual.”