Bravazo makes plans for Dubai World Cup

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Bravazo remains on target for the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 30, trainer D. Wayne Lukas said, as workout and shipping plans are coming together in preparation for the overseas trip.

Bravazo, an earner of $2 million bred and owned by Calumet Farm, is coming off a fourth-place finish in the $9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 26 at Gulfstream Park. He will be flown back to Florida next month and on March 18 is scheduled to depart Fort Lauderdale for Dubai.

“We leave on March 18th, as I understand it,” Lukas said of the flight Bravazo will take with other runners headed to Dubai.

Bravazo will be the first overseas starter for Hall of Fame trainer Lukas.

“He’ll be there 12 days ahead,” Lukas said. “I’m going to go with him right away. I’ve been talking to Bob Baffert, Dallas Stewart, Steve Asmussen, kind of getting the lowdown on how things go over there. I don’t know what to take, what not to take. It will be exciting to go over there. We’ll take a pretty healthy run at them.”

Bravazo, who won last year’s Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds, closed his 3-year-old season with a third-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and a second-place finish in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, both at Churchill Downs. For his first start this year, in the Pegasus, he vanned from his Oaklawn base to Florida then returned home to Arkansas.

“I gave him just a hair longer break, added three, four days, because of the last race and the ship and all of that,” Lukas said. “It takes a little out of them. He’s really done well. He's full of himself.”

Bravazo on Wednesday had his first work since the Pegasus. He breezed by himself shortly after the track opened, on a sunny morning with temperatures in the mid-30s. Oaklawn clockers had Bravazo going a half-mile in 49 seconds and galloping out five-eighths in 1:03.80. The track was fast.