Chance It staying home after all

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. worked Chance It a sharp five furlongs in 59.41 with jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard at 7:45 a.m. on Monday, it was with the express purpose of running his star 2-year-old in Sunday’s $400,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park. But those plans changed abruptly a couple of hours later after Joseph received a text from Dr. Patty Marquis, the head veterinarian at Gulfstream Park.

“The message from Dr. Patty informed me that if we took him to Remington, he’d have to stay there for 30 days because of the quarantine,” said Joseph, referring to an ongoing equine herpesvirus quarantine at Remington. Gulfstream does not allow horses who have been exposed to a quarantine situation to return to its backstretch for 30 days. “So now that’s out.”

Chance It looked sharp again on Monday, breaking off about six lengths behind a stablemate before readily running his target down through midstretch when asked from the eighth pole to the wire by Gaffalione, completing his final quarter in 22.91 into a bit of a headwind before galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.37.

“The plan when we worked him this morning was to give him a stiff work before he got on the van to run this weekend at Remington Park,” said Joseph. “And I thought he worked great.”

Joseph will now go to Plan B with Chance It, winner of the 1 1/16-mile In Reality Stakes on Sept. 28 with Gaffalione aboard, and three of five starts overall to make him the undisputed leader of the local 2-year-old division. That means waiting for the one-mile Mucho Macho Man here on Jan. 4.

“He’s plenty fit now, so we’ll back off a little next week after this work today since we’ve still got four weeks until his next start,” said Joseph.