Change of plans for Diamondrella

ELMONT, N.Y. Trainers Christophe Clement and Angel Penna Jr. both wanted to work their Breeders' Cup horses on the turf Saturday morning at Belmont Park. Only Clement did.

Penna, not satisfied with the condition of Belmont's Widener Turf Course, opted to work Turf Sprint candidate Diamondrella on the dirt, putting her through a half-mile breeze in 48.22 seconds over Belmont's main track. It was her first work on dirt since July 9.

"NYRA was kind enough to give the grass to us, I walked it over, and I just didn't like it," Penna said. "There are so many holes and it's really torn completely. I didn't want to take a shot. The second-best thing I could do was to breeze her on the dirt; she breezed pretty good."

Penna moved his work up a day because of the threat of bad weather Saturday night. Diamondrella had worked a half-mile on the inner turf on Tuesday.

Penna said he would have liked to have done more with Diamondrella on Saturday as he is turning her back in distance from the two-turn mile of the First Lady at Keeneland - which she won by three-quarters of a length - to a 6 1/2-furlong race down the hill at Santa Anita. Toward that end, Penna wanted to put "a little more speed" into Diamondrella.

"Everything that I worked to take off to go two turns now I have to give it back," Penna said. "It's just a matter of putting it back in her head again that [showing more speed] is what she has to do this time instead of relax too much."

Meanwhile, Clement was satisfied enough with the turf to have Classic contender Gio Ponti - the leading turf horse in the country - work over it. Clement had exercise rider Jerry Fogarty keep Gio Ponti three to four paths off the rail and really only had Fogarty ask the horse in the stretch, as he came home the final quarter in 24.44 seconds in a half-mile work timed in 52.59 seconds.

"To have that kind of work, it was perfectly safe," Clement said of the turf course. "There was a path three or four wide, which was okay. I've been working him on the grass all year long, which is the reason why I wanted to work him on the grass today. He had worked on dirt in the past; he could have worked on dirt. Why change something when it seems to be working?"

Clement said Gio Ponti was blowing a little bit when he came back, but "within 10 minutes he cooled out fine. He looks happy, he finished well, he's a happy horse."

Both Diamondrella and Gio Ponti are scheduled to ship to California on Tuesday.