After missing Jerome, Weyburn might run in Jimmy Winkfield

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The 3-year-old Weyburn, a good-looking maiden winner on the Dec. 5 Cigar Mile card at Aqueduct, returned to the work tab Thursday for the first time in three weeks, breezing a half-mile in 49.02 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

It was Weyburn’s first work since Dec. 16. Shortly afterward he got sick, which knocked him out of consideration for a start in the $150,000 Jerome at Aqueduct on New Year’s Day. Now, Weyburn is a potential candidate for the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield Stakes on Jan. 30, trainer Jimmy Jerkens said.

“We were kind of on the fence about the Jerome anyway, and then he got sick, so that ended that,” Jerkens said. “I guess the Jimmy Winkfield is a possibility. Seven furlongs ought to be good.”

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Weyburn, a son of Pioneerof the Nile, won his maiden in his third start, sparring on the lead with longshot Kentucky Knight before edging clear of the field in the lane. He didn’t change to his correct lead in the stretch in a race run over a sloppy, sealed surface. He earned a 67 Beyer Speed Figure.

“Nothing flashy, but good,” Jerkens said of the victory. “The conditions were horrible; a lot of wind, a lot of mud. You always got to add on a few more points when that happens.”

Jerkens said he also looks forward to stretching Weyburn out in distance at some point.

Jerkens, who kept his entire stable in New York this winter, has an interesting 3-year-old prospect in Khafre, whom he hopes to start in the next two weeks. Khafre is a son of American Pharoah owned by Centennial Farms, who purchased him for $500,000 at auction.

Khafre worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00 on Jan. 1 and then came back Thursday with a strong four-furlong work from the gate in 47.38 seconds.

“We had him going, then we backed off him just a little bit and then started going again,” Jerkens said. “We might run him on the 17th. It’s seven furlongs. He might like that better.”

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On Sunday, Jerkens is poised to debut Mo Desserts, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Nyquist, in a six-furlong race.

“She has been training well,” Jerkens said.

Jerkens said that Rocketry, who won the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Stakes at Keeneland on Nov. 6, is getting a freshening on a farm in Middleburg, Va. Jerkens anticipates getting Rocketry back in March to start planning for a 7-year-old campaign.