Work All Week Relentless in Phoenix
Midwest Thoroughbreds' Illinois-bred Work All Week proved much the best to earn a Breeders' Cup spot on Friday, winning his first graded stakes in the Grade 3, $200,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix at Keeneland.
Trained by Roger Brueggemann and ridden by Florent Geroux, Work All Week covered the six furlongs in 1:09.00 in holding off C. Zee by a length to earn a spot in the $1.5 million Xpressbet Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) to be run Nov. 1.
In the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix, Work All Week tracked the pace of Zee Bros, who ran the first quarter-mile in :21.77. Work All Week took over at the head of the stretch, getting the half-mile in :44.17, and kicked clear in midstretch to give Geroux and Brueggemann their first Keeneland graded stakes victories.
A 5-year-old Illinois-bred son of City Zip out of the Repriced mare Danzig Matilda, Work All Week improved his record to 14-11-2-0 and boosted his earnings to $532,571 with Friday’s $120,000 check.
Sent off as the favorite, Work All Week returned $6.40, $3.60 and $2.40. C. Zee, ridden by Luis Saez, rallied for second and returned $6 and $4 in finishing two lengths ahead of Bern Identity who paid $2.80 to show under Paco Lopez.
Lemon Drop Dream finished fourth and was followed in order by Rainbow Heir, Mr. Baker and Zee Bros.
Fall Stars Weekend continues Saturday with a 10-race program featuring five graded stakes headlined by the first $1 million race in track history, the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1), featuring reigning two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan. First post time is 1:05 p.m. ET with the Shadwell going as the ninth race with a 5:45 p.m. post time.
Source: Keeneland Communications