Always Dreaming breezes easy half-mile for Kentucky Derby

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Always Dreaming, the potential favorite for the Kentucky Derby, turned in the first of his three scheduled breezes leading up to the big event, going an easy half-mile in 49.90 seconds with jockey John Velazquez aboard shortly after dawn Friday at Palm Beach Downs.

Velazquez flew into town from Kentucky on Thursday evening to keep his regular seat aboard Always Dreaming, who worked for the first time since his impressive 4 3/4-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1. Always Dreaming broke off three lengths behind the Grade 1-placed turf specialist All Included, edged closer after an opening quarter-mile in 26.44, then began to ease away from his target while just cruising to the wire outside his mate, who was under considerable urging to match strides at the end.

Always Dreaming continued strongly into the turn, galloping out five-eighths in 1:02.55 before pulling up six furlongs in 1:16.95.

“I thought the work was very good,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “I purposely set him back behind the other horse and thought he settled really well, especially considering the first part was a little on the slow side. I liked the way he finished up the last quarter in 23 and change and galloped out impressively.

“Based on what we were seeing throughout the morning, the track’s not super fast. The longer you’re here, the more you kind of get used to this track. It’s a little bit quirky in some ways. It can be a little inside-biased.

“Sometimes it doesn’t produce fast times, but we like it a lot. It’s been a very safe surface for us. It seems like a lot of horses thrived throughout the winter here for us. And he’s one of the exceptions in terms of horses who consistently win breezes whether he’s on the inside or outside of horses.”

Pletcher also worked another of his five potential Kentucky Derby starters about a half-hour later, sending out Louisiana Derby runner-up Patch to go four furlongs in 49.40 inside Caviar Czar, completing his final quarter in 24.37 under light urging before galloping out five lengths best in 1:03.03.

“That was a pretty standard Patch breeze,” Pletcher said. “He’s not a horse who’ll wow you in the mornings. I thought it was fine.”

Pletcher has his five Derby hopefuls scattered in four different states. Along with the locally based pair, he also has Battalion Runner stabled at Belmont Park, Tapwrit at Keeneland, and Malagacy at Oaklawn Park for Saturday’s Arkansas Derby. His travel plans remain up in the air for Always Dreaming, Patch, and Battalion Runner and are contingent upon the long-range weather forecast next week in Louisville, Ky.

Requite works on comeback

Another stakes winner training for his comeback at Palm Beach Downs is Requite, on the shelf since his eighth-place finish last summer at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Vanderbilt. Requite is trained by George Weaver, who said he hopes to have the sprint specialist back in action during the spring-summer meeting at Gulfstream.

“He didn’t run a jump in the Vanderbilt,” Weaver said. “He was never in the race and came out with foot problems, which have been an issue for him throughout his career. I hope we can make a race with him at Gulfstream before we leave, like we did last year, since he really seems to like that racetrack.”

Requite is perfect in three starts at Gulfstream, two of those victories coming in overnight stakes.

“I’d like to get a race for him the first week of June, and we’d also keep the big race in mind for him in July,” Weaver said, referring to the Grade 2 Smile Sprint on the Summit of Speed card.

◗ The 10-race Sunday program includes a pair of turf allowances, the first for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/16 miles and the second carded at five furlongs for older horses and featuring the return of Grade 3 winner Amelia’s Wild Ride, who has not started since finishing second behind Power Alert in the Silks Run Stakes here in March 2016.