Close Hatches works for Personal Ensign

About 4 ½ hours after Wise Dan began the parade of Grade 1-winning horses working in Saratoga around 5:30 Saturday morning, Close Hatches ended it with an effortless half-mile move in 47.85 seconds over Oklahoma training track.

In her first and only local work before Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign, Close Hatches went her first quarter in 24.02 seconds and came through the lane in 23.93 under exercise rider Neal Poznansky. Close Hatches galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.63 and six furlongs in 1:15.34.

“How could you not be excited?” trainer Bill Mott said. “Just galloping.”

Close Hatches has not run since beating Princess of Sylmar by a head in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7. That was her third graded stakes win in as many tries this year. Overall, Close Hatches is 8 for 11.

Close Hatches had been training at Belmont Park before shipping here last Sunday.

The Personal Ensign will feature a rematch between Close Hatches and Princess of Sylmar. On Saturday, Princess of Sylmar worked four furlongs in 49.18 seconds in company with the stakes-winning filly Silsita. That pair went off in 25.39 seconds for the opening quarter and home in 23.79 seconds. Princess of Sylmar galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.04.

“I thought she worked super, seems to be coming up to it in good order,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

Entries for the Personal Ensign, a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, will be taken on Monday. Also expected to run are Antipathy, Belle Gallantey, Fiftyshadesofhay, and Stanwyck.