Atreides will skip Cigar Mile after trouble securing a jockey

MIAMI – Trainer Marty Wolfson said he has decided to bypass Saturday’s Cigar Mile at Aqueduct with his once-beaten Atreides after not being able to line up a suitable rider for the race.

Atreides, who earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures winning the first three starts of his career, is coming off a disappointing performance when trying two turns for the first time in the Indiana Derby. Wolfson said earlier this month he had hoped to secure the services of either Javier Castellano or Irad Ortiz Jr. for the Grade 1 Cigar Mile, but both have other commitments on Saturday. Castellano will ride Transparent, while Ortiz has the call on Vyjack.

Joel Rosario rode Atreides for the first time in Indiana, but he has the mount on Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Secret Circle in the Cigar Mile.

“All the jockeys I had hoped to use are committed elsewhere,” Wolfson said at his barn at Gulfstream Park on Tuesday. “And I didn’t want to send him all the way to New York to run in that type of race without a top-class rider.”

Wolfson said his plans for Atreides, a 3-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro, are up in the air for the time being.

“I want to run him in the Hal’s Hope to open his 2015 season,” said Wolfson, referring to the one-turn, one-mile, Grade 3 event at Gulfstream on Jan. 10. “But I’d really like to get a prep race for him here first.”

Wolfson said Atreides is scheduled to work at Gulfstream on Thanksgiving morning.

Wolfson did have some of his stable stars out to breeze under balmy skies at Gulfstream on Tuesday. The group included Viramundo, who went four furlongs in 47.35 seconds and galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.80.

Viramundo, who finished a distant third earlier this year in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap, was scratched from an allowance here last Friday. He is scheduled to make his next start opening day at Gulfstream in the Claiming Crown.

Wolfson’s Montana Cowboy, a 3-year-old maiden winner by Grand Slam, lit up the tab on Tuesday when working a half-mile in 46.05 seconds.

Another prominent name on Tuesday’s tab at Gulfstream was trainer Ralph Nicks’s undefeated 2-year-old Richard the Great, who breezed an easy half-mile in 49.64 seconds. Nicks said several hours later that he was pleased with the move, and he plans to run Richard the Great in Saturday’s six-furlong Buffalo Man Stakes at Gulfstream Park West.