Breeders' Cup notes: McLaughlin quartet breezes at Saratoga

Led by Filly and Mare Sprint candidate Dance Card, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin worked a quartet of Breeders’ Cup runners Friday at Saratoga.

Dance Card, who has raced just once this year, worked four furlongs in 48.00 seconds over the Oklahoma training track. Saratoga clockers caught her in splits of 12.32, 23.91, and had her galloping out five furlongs in 1:01.47.

“She worked real fast last week, and we didn’t need another real fast work,” McLaughlin said by phone as he drove back to Belmont. “The interesting thing, from the trainer’s standpoint, is she stays right on the rail working. She doesn’t do anything wrong. In the afternoon, she wanders a little bit. Personally, I think when she’s in and amongst horses, she doesn’t drift. It’s when she gets on the lead by herself. No question she’ll be in and amongst horses in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Dance Card, a Grade 1 winner going long last year, finished third in the Gallant Bloom at 6 1/2 furlongs at Belmont on Sept. 21, her only start since having a chip removed from a knee.

Alpha, the 2012 Travers winner and this year’s Woodward Stakes winner, worked a half-mile in 48.12 in company with Transparent. The two got their last half-mile in 24.20 and galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.91. Alpha, who finished last in the 2012 Classic, will run this year in the Dirt Mile.

“We thought it was a drop in class,” McLaughlin said. Joe “Bravo felt like he learned a little bit about him last time riding him, and he put in his pitch to run him in the [Dirt] Mile. He’s doing better than he was last year at this time. We figure we’re going with three others. He’s doing very well. We think he fits well in the [Dirt] Mile.”

Dancing House and Sky Painter, McLaughlin’s pair for the Juvenile Fillies Turf, also worked Friday. Dancing House went a half-mile in 48.59 over the Oklahoma dirt surface. Sky Painter went four furlongs in 47.20 right-handed, or the opposite from a race, over the synthetic surface at the Greentree training center.

Though Dancing House was pre-entered for the Juvenile Fillies and Juvenile Fillies Turf, McLaughlin felt the filly moved up on grass when third, beaten four lengths by Testa Rossi, in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo, so he will keep her on turf.

“We felt like she moved forward on the turf last time, had a little traffic, had a little bit of a wide trip,” said McLaughlin, who has Mike Smith to ride.

Sky Painter, who won her debut sprinting on turf, was beaten a nose in the Miss Grillo, her first race around two turns.

“We don’t have a Kitten in our name,” McLaughlin said about his two Juvenile Fillies Turf contenders, “but we’re in good shape.”