Brueggemann shifts stable base away from Chicago

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Roger Brueggemann is like everybody else who has trained in Chicago for many years: He wishes the purses were better than they are.

But Brueggemann, a regular on the Chicago circuit since he began training in 1991, is different from most: He has shifted his summer base of operations elsewhere for the first time, with most of his 50-horse stable split between Indiana Grand in suburban Indianapolis and the Trackside training center near Churchill Downs.

Brueggemann cited the Polytrack surface at Arlington Park, along with the depressed purse structure and his clients’ desire to race elsewhere, as factors in his southward migration.

“It’s sad, but what else can you do?” he said before sending out Nobiz Like Sue Biz to a runner-up finish as an 11-1 shot in the second race Sunday at Churchill. “Until the tracks get help from the state of Illinois, I don’t know. I’ve still got six head in Chicago, but the rest are at Indiana or here.”

Easily the most accomplished horse in Brueggemann’s career is Work All Week, the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner and Eclipse Award champion who is nearing his 6-year-old debut for owner and breeder Midwest Thoroughbreds. Brueggemann, 69, said the Grade 3 Aristides, a six-furlong race here May 30, is the targeted comeback spot for the Illinois-bred gelding.

“We’re just trying to get him back to the Breeders’ Cup” on the last weekend of October at Keeneland, said Brueggemann. “We’d like to prep there in the Phoenix again and maybe have two or three races going into that.”

With regular rider Florent Geroux up, Work All Week had his seventh breeze since late March when going six furlongs in 1:12.60 on Sunday at Trackside.

“Everything’s going really well with him,” said Brueggemann.