Southwest Stakes contender Six Shooter gets equipment change

Six Shooter will don new equipment in the Grade 3, $500,000 Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds Feb. 18, trainer Paul Holthus said Saturday morning.

The Trappe Shot gelding completed major preparations for the Southwest by working five furlongs in 59.80 during a half-hour training window early Friday afternoon under Stewart Elliott.

With blinkers on, he breezed in company with 4-year-old stablemate Gettin Even, who was credited with five furlongs in 1:00.20. The surface was rated muddy.

Six Shooter is coming off a fourth-place finish, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, in the $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes Jan. 25. Elliott rode him for the first time in the one-mile Kentucky Derby prep.

“The last time he ran, he was up in between horses and sucked back out of there when he turned up the backside,” Holthus said. “After talking to Stewart, we both thought that if he hadn’t done that, it might have made a difference in the race. If he would have been two lengths closer, it would have been two lengths less he would have had to make up. I don’t see any reason not to put them on him, really.”

Holthus said it’s the first time he’s worked Six Shooter in blinkers, but the gelding has galloped “a couple of times” in the equipment since the Smarty Jones “just to make sure he wasn’t going to get too aggressive.”

Holthus said Six Shooter emerged from the work in good order and was “bouncing around the barn” Saturday morning.

“He’s kind of a light made horse, that’s why I like to breeze him a little farther out,” Holthus said. “I just felt like a week was too close for him. I didn’t know if we’d get to train today, so I’m glad they finally opened it up and let us train for a half-hour yesterday.”