Always Carina will risk unbeaten mark in Mother Goose
ELMONT, N.Y. – While trainer Chad Brown decides what to do next with Grade 1 Acorn winner Search Results, he plans to give unbeaten Always Carina her final work over the weekend in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Mother Goose Stakes.
A daughter of Malibu Moon, Always Carina has impressed winning her first two starts, including a 9 3/4-length score in a one-mile allowance here on May 20.
She will make her stakes debut in the Mother Goose and is likely to meet four rivals in the 1 1/16-mile race.
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Trainer Steve Asmussen is pointing Clairiere, the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra winner and fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Oaks, to the Mother Goose.
Others pointing to the Mother Goose are Illiogami, a winner of two straight for Rusty Arnold; Maracuja, second to Search Results in the Gazelle; and Zaajel, who won the Grade 3 Forward Gal at Gulfstream Park in January for trainer Todd Pletcher.
Meanwhile, Brown said Search Results was scheduled to work on Saturday. After the work, he and owner Seth Klarman will decide whether to point her toward the Coaching Club American Oaks going 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga on July 24 – and a potential rematch with Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat – or keep her around one turn and aim for the Grade 1 Test at seven furlongs on Aug. 7.
◗ Highly Motivated, who came within a neck of Essential Quality in the Blue Grass Stakes before running 10th in the Kentucky Derby, will miss a planned start in the Grade 3, $250,000 Dwyer on July 5 due to illness, trainer Chad Brown said Friday. Brown said there is a significant virus going through several barns on the Belmont backstretch and Highly Motivated caught it and got sick.