Brown weighing options for Carl Spackler
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – With Carl Spackler having become a Grade 1 winner and earning a fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 2 by virtue of his victory in Sunday’s Fourstardave, trainer Chad Brown must now figure out the best route to get to the $2 million race at Del Mar.
His main choices for a race in between now and the BC Mile are the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 14 or the Grade 1, $1.25 million Coolmore Turf Mile on Oct. 5 at Keeneland. As an Irish-bred, Carl Spackler would only be running for $1 million at Keeneland.
Brown’s one hesitation with the Coolmore Turf Mile is the last time he shipped the horse to Keeneland the horse developed colic and needed to undergo surgery. That was last October.
“The big decision is if I want to go to Keeneland again,” Brown said. “The last time I did, he didn’t handle it well. That’s a risk I have to weigh. The timing is much better for the Keeneland race.”
Carl Spackler improved his record to 6 for 9 with his 3 1/2-length victory in the Fourstardave, for which he earned a career-high 104 Beyer Speed Figure.
“This sure looked like a horse that was sitting on a big number,” Brown said Sunday after the race. “He was capable of it, he had flirted with running a monster number before. He wins, but I had a feeling today – and with a little bit of cut in the ground he’s even a little better – was going to be his day and it was.”
More Than Looks, who ran a respectable second in the Fourstardave in his first start since last November’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, is definitely pointing toward the Coolmore Turf Mile, trainer Cherie DeVaux said.
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