Samraat Prepares for Next Start

Multiple Grade 3 winner Samraat tuned up for his next start - either the Grade 2 Jim Dandy or the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park the following day - with a

half-mile work in 48.79 seconds over Saratoga's main track for trainer Rick Violette this morning.

Samraat went out at 6 a.m. with regular exercise rider Rodney Paine up. It was his fourth breeze since his sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on June 7 and first ever at Saratoga.

"He went great and galloped out good," said Violette, who trains Samraat for owner Leonard Riggio's My Meadowview Farm. "We didn't have to do any more than that. He breezed a mile last week and finished really fast so this was more of a maintenance thing, get it done, get out of it in one piece and move on. He's pretty remote control. He'll go slow, fast or in-between, whatever the pilot asks him to do."

Winner of the Grade 3 Withers and Grade 3 Gotham over the winter at Aqueduct, Samraat was second to Wicked Strong in the Grade 1 TwinSpires.com Wood Memorial on April 5 and a solid fifth in the Kentucky Derby a month later prior to the Belmont.

"The Jim Dandy is the first choice," Violette said. "We'll certainly look at who's going where before we decide. There are pluses to both races. We'll kind of handicap and see where our style suits best and what the competition is and pick our poison after that."

On Friday's opening day, Violette unveiled 2-year-old Macho Uno filly Graeme Crackers, a hard-fought debut winner over The Lewis Dinner by a half-length, going 5 ½ furlongs in 1:05.42 over the main track.

"She's done everything right without being a star," he said. "She's probably a grass horse and wants to go longer. Two half-siblings have been very good grass horses, but you have to get your career started. She's supposed to stretch out, being by Macho Uno. She was very game, and that was probably the best thing. She got hooked, she got headed, and she came back."