Belmont Park: Pletcher targeting another juvenile stakes sweep in Champagne, Frizette

Barbara D. Livingston

Shanghai Bobby (right) works a half-mile in 50.15 seconds with stablemate Tizracer on Sunday at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Fresh off a sweep of Belmont’s Grade 2 stakes for juveniles on Sunday, trainer Todd Pletcher now turns his attention to this Saturday’s pair of Grade 1 stakes for 2-year-olds, where again he will be expected to do quite well.

Pletcher won Sunday’s $200,000 Futurity with Overanalyze and $200,000 Matron with Kauai Katie.

Saturday, Pletcher will send out Shanghai Bobby, Archwarrior, and possibly Micromanage in the Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes for males and Dreaming of Julia in the $400,000 Frizette for fillies. Both races award automatic berths into their respective Breeders’ Cup divisional races as part of the Win and You’re In program.

On Sunday morning, Pletcher sent out the majority of his 2-year-olds for workouts over the Belmont training track.

Shanghai Bobby, who figures to be the Champagne favorite based on his 3-for-3 record that includes a victory in the Grade 2 Hopeful, worked a half-mile in 50.15 seconds with the maiden winner Tizracer, who is heading to the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland. Shanghai Bobby, under Rosie Napravnik, galloped out better than Tizracer, under Jose Lezcano.

“I think Rosie encouraged him a little more,” Pletcher said. “Jose doesn’t breeze that many horses for us. He’s riding him on Saturday, and I wanted him to get to know him.”

Also Sunday morning, Archwarrior and Micromanage – both debut winners at Saratoga – worked five furlongs together in 1:00.26 over the training track. Both were pretty much in hand, and Micromanage, who had Javier Castellano up, finished a neck in front while on the outside of Archwarrior and John Velazquez.

“Both horses worked really well again, I thought it was kind of a mirror image of last week’s works, just switched which horse was on the inside,” Pletcher said. “Both horses seemed to train very well.”

Pletcher also sent out Dreaming of Julia for an in-company, half-mile work that was timed in 48.51. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.70. She worked with the older stakes-winning filly Mildly Offensive.

“Her last work she went an easy half, I wanted to make sure she did just a little more today,” Pletcher said. “She actually worked, I thought, very impressively.”

As of Sunday, others pointing to the Champagne included Hopeful runner-up Fortify, Sanford winner Bern Identity, the Doug O’Neill trained debut winner Goldencents, and the European-based maiden Chief Havoc, who is out of 2003 Tempted Stakes winner La Reina.

Others pointing to the Frizette are My Happy Face, Nancy O, and Sweet Shirley Mae.

Pletcher said that Overanalyze would “probably not” be pointed to a Breeders’ Cup race. He mentioned the Nashua at Aqueduct or one of the juvenile stakes at Churchill Downs as possible next starts for him.

Providing Dreaming of Julia runs another big race in the Frizette and moves on to the Juvenile Fillies, it is possible Kauai Katie could point to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint, where she would have to face males.