Believe You Can will skip CCA Oaks

Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can will skip the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 21 and await the Alabama on Aug. 18, trainer Larry Jones said Thursday.

Jones said he would have to van Believe You Can from Ellis Park to Saratoga for both races and wanted to make that trip only one time. She vanned from Kentucky to New York for the Mother Goose, a race in which she finished third.

“We’re going to sit this one out,” Jones said Thursday from Ellis Park. “We’re going to pinpoint the Alabama. We feel like our horse is suited for the extra distance as well as anybody else.”

The Alabama is run at 1 1/4 miles, an eighth of a mile farther than the Coaching Club.

Among those pointing to the Coaching Club American Oaks are Mother Goose winner Zo Impressive, Black-Eyed Susan 1-2 finishers In Lingerie and Disposablepleasure, recent allowance winner Questing, and Yara, who was recently transferred to trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero.

On Monday, Zo Impressive worked five furlongs in 1:03.41, with a final quarter of 24.98 seconds over the Belmont main track.

“She’s been training very well since the Mother Goose,” trainer Tom Albertrani said.