Brown will point General Partner to Champagne Stakes
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – General Partner, a four-length maiden winner going seven furlongs on Saturday, will target the Grade 1, $500,000 Champagne Stakes on Oct. 7 at Aqueduct, trainer Chad Brown said.
General Partner, a son of Speightstown, finished fourth to Valentine Candy in his debut July 22. On Saturday, General Partner was sent to the lead by Irad Ortiz Jr. and led at every pole, winning by four and earning a solid 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
“He ran super,” trainer Chad Brown said. “We really liked the horse prior to his debut and I probably jumped the gun entering him a week earlier or so. He wasn’t quite ready to run. But it all worked out in the end because he got a valuable race and some experience and final piece of fitness and he showed up” Saturday.
Brown said General Partner’s victory also was a sense of relief to him “because he’s been one of our best prospects in the morning,” Brown said. “If he didn’t turn out, then it doesn’t bode well for some of them that are just behind him, so it’s good to see him run that well.”
Muth re-routed to American Pharoah
Trainer Bob Baffert scratched Muth from Monday’s Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga and will re-route him to the Grade 1 American Pharoah on Oct. 7 at Santa Anita.
Baffert still had Mission Beach in the Hopeful.
Baffert said both horses are expected to ship back to California on Wednesday.
Baffert said the combination of the Hopeful being too quick back from his second-place finish to stablemate Prince of Monaco in the Grade 2 Best Pal at Del Mar and the Hopeful coming up “salty” were why he chose to scratch.
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