Always Shopping likely to skip Ky. Oaks, target Black-Eyed Susan

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though she has done more than enough to qualify for the Kentucky Oaks, Always Shopping is likely to skip that Grade 1, $1.25 million race at Churchill Downs and point to the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 17, owner Mike Repole said Sunday morning.

After winning Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct, Always Shopping ranks third on the Kentucky Oaks qualifying points list with 110. But Repole believes his filly has done quite well with her races spaced out, and the Oaks would mean coming back in 27 days. Always Shopping has never started with fewer than 50 days between races.

Also, Repole feels the filly might get stronger as the year progresses, and his main target for Always Shopping is the Alabama at Saratoga on Aug. 17.

“I’d say it’s 80 percent she’s going to the Black-Eyed Susan,” said Repole, who added that was his and trainer Todd Pletcher’s mindset going into the Gazelle. “The Alabama is the race that came up yesterday more than the Oaks. A mile and a quarter, Saratoga. In four or five months, she should be bigger, stronger. She’s a nice filly.”

Always Shopping earned an 82 Beyer Speed Figure for her Gazelle win. She has improved her Beyers in each of her five starts.

Repole noted that Always Shopping’s pedigree is a result of him winning the 2014 Black-Eyed Susan with Stopchargingmaria. That victory gave Repole a free breeding right to Awesome Again, a Stronach Stable stallion, and he bred Stopshoppingmaria to Awesome Again. The resulting foal was Always Shopping.

Rodolphe Brisset, the trainer of Gazelle runner-up Positive Spirit, told the New York Racing Association publicity department that his filly may also skip the Oaks.

“I’ll have to talk with the owner, but it’s not a priority,” Brisset said. “Since she won the Demoiselle, we’ve been saying we see her as more of a filly for the summer in Saratoga. A race like the Alabama could be a good goal for her.”

Repole said that Life’s a Parlay, the winner of the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior Stakes on Saturday, could be considered for the Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special on the same day as the Black-Eyed Susan.

Life’s a Parlay won the Excelsior just three weeks after winning an allowance race at Oaklawn Park. Pletcher said the Excelsior wasn’t necessarily the plan for Life’s a Parlay, but he liked the way the horse worked the previous weekend and how the race was coming up.

“It was sort of a lot to throw at him in three weeks; he handled it fine,” Pletcher said. “Johnny [Velazquez] felt like he had a little more in the tank and he waited once he got to the front.”

Life’s a Parlay, a 4-year-old son of Uncle Mo whom Repole owns in partnership with Vinnie Viola, earned a 94 Beyer for his Excelsior win.

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World of Trouble likely to Jaipur

World of Trouble, the winner of the Grade 1 Carter on Saturday, is likely to return to turf for his next start, which could come in the Grade 1 Jaipur at Belmont on June 8, trainer Jason Servis said Sunday.

World of Trouble has proven just as good, if not better, on turf as he has on dirt. When mapping out a schedule for him, it’s more about timing than surface. The Jaipur, run at six furlongs, would be nine weeks from the Carter. He had 71 days between his previous start, a victory in the off-the-turf Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, and the Carter.

World of Trouble, a son of Kantharos, has won 7 of 11 starts, including five of his last six. His only loss in that span was a neck decision to Stormy Liberal in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs.

Servis said that after the Jaipur, World of Trouble could return to dirt in a race like the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga on July 27.

“He’s just a runner, he always makes you look good,” Servis said.

World of Trouble earned a 100 Beyer for his Carter victory.