Come Dancing back to work; Castellano to ride

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Come Dancing, the dominant winner of the Grade 2 Ruffian and Grade 3 Distaff Handicap this year, returned to the work tab Sunday, breezing three furlongs in 35.97 seconds over Saratoga’s main track.

It was Come Dancing’s first work since she finished second behind Midnight Bisou in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park on June 8. Javier Castellano was aboard for the work and will ride Come Dancing in the Grade 1 Ballerina here Aug. 24, trainer Carlos Martin said. Manny Franco had ridden the 5-year-old mare in all of her starts this year.

“It was a meet-and-greet for Javier,” Martin said of Sunday’s work. “She didn’t even look like she was working. Round 1 is out of the way; we have [five] weeks to the Ballerina.”

Martin said that following the Phipps, Come Dancing was sent to the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, where she got a little downtime and access to the hyperbaric chamber. She came back to Martin around July 10 and had a little more than a week of galloping before Sunday’s breeze.

In explaining the rider change, Martin said Marc Holliday, the owner of Come Dancing, “always wanted to give Javier a top horse. Manny didn’t do anything wrong.”