After a working routine Beckman will split up Her Laugh, Simply Joking

As they have done for months, the 3-year-old fillies Her Laugh and Simply Joking breezed together Sunday at Fair Grounds, working a half-mile for upcoming starts, but as he said would be the case after both horses won stakes races Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, their trainer, Whit Beckman, will continue keeping the pair apart.

Simply Joking, who clocked 49 seconds in her Sunday breeze, starts Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $150,000 Silverbulletday, stretching out to a route after making a winning career debut in the six-furlong Letellier Stakes.

Her Laugh is a candidate for the $300,000 Martha Washington Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 25 at Oaklawn Park.

“If she breezes well again next week and if it looks like a good situation, we might run her there. Or we could just wait for February,” Beckman said.

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Her Laugh won a seven-furlong Churchill Downs maiden in her debut before stretching to a mile and 70 yards and capturing the Untapable Stakes at Fair Grounds.

“They went great this morning,” Beckman said Sunday. “Looked good visually, galloped out five-eighths in 1:01 and change fairly handily. It looked about the same as last week, only I put Simply Joking on the inside this morning. She tends to be a little more on the bridle, but she relaxed pretty good.”

Beckman has a second entrant in the Silverbulletday, Drexel Hill, who finished fifth in the Untapable, her first start for Beckman and first on dirt following four Woodbine starts over Tapeta. Whitman also entered Drexel Hill in a first-level dirt route allowance Sunday and said he’d keep both weekend options open. Wherever she starts, Drexel Hill races for the first time in blinkers.

“We did a couple equipment adjustments. There were a couple things during the race we can improve, and I think we’ve got her really good right now,” Beckman said.

Beckman said 4-year-old colt Honor Marie will have his first workout since August in the coming days at Fair Grounds, where he’s been stabled for about one month. Honor Marie won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at 2 and this past March finished second in the Louisiana Derby. A rough trip in the Kentucky Derby yielded an eighth-place finish before Honor Marie bounced back with an improved fourth in the Belmont, but after a flat run in the Travers Stakes, Honor Marie went on a 120-day respite.

“He’s bigger and blockier now. He always was kind of a finer-made horse, but he’s definitely put on some mass. Everything is bigger about the horse,” Beckman said.

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