Count Again works towards comeback
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In the last two years, Count Again has been prominent in early season graded stakes on turf in California, but did not start after Labor Day.
This year, Count Again’s season has been delayed with the hope the 8-year-old gelding can be a factor in major stakes in the summer and autumn.
On Thursday at Santa Anita, Count Again worked five furlongs in 1:01 on the infield training track in preparation for a start next month at Del Mar.
Trainer Phil D’Amato said he has yet to choose whether Count Again will start in the $100,000 Wickerr Stakes, a restricted race at a mile on turf on July 23, or the Grade 2 Eddie Read Stakes, a $250,000 race at 1 1/8 miles on turf on July 30.
“That is to be determined,” D’Amato said. “We know he’s a crack miler when he’s on his game. We’ll have to decide what is a good prep.”
D’Amato said the Grade 2 Del Mar Mile on turf on Sept. 2 is a late summer goal for Count Again. D’Amato trains Count Again for the partnership of Agave Racing and Sam-Son Farm. The team is hopeful Count Again can start in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.
A five-time stakes winner, Count Again was winless in five starts in 2021, including a third in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on turf, the top race for the division at Santa Anita in the winter. Last year, Count Again won the Kilroe and the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile in May, gaining an automatic berth to the BC Mile at Keeneland.
Count Again was taken out of training last September because of bone bruising, D’Amato said on Thursday.
“We gave him plenty of time to recover,” D’Amato said.
Count Again has won 7 of 17 starts, a small number of races for an 8-year-old. The gelding’s age is not a concern to D’Amato.
“He’s so lightly-raced,” D’Amato said. “He’s a fresh horse and he can come back really well. He can run well off the bench.”
D’Amato has won 14 turf stakes this year, and 16 overall, and will have runners in several prominent turf stakes in the opening weeks of the Del Mar meeting, which begins on July 21.
Conclude, winner of the Desert Code Stakes for 3-year-olds on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on May 21, is a candidate for the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes, a restricted turf race at a mile on July 21. Conclude worked five furlongs in 1:01.60 under jockey Juan Hernandez on the training track at Santa Anita on Thursday.
Conclude will race a mile for the first time in the Oceanside, his fifth start.
“He acts like he will” handle the distance, D’Amato said.
Classical Cat, unraced since a win in the Eddie Logan Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile on turf at Santa Anita on Dec. 30, is another candidate for the Oceanside, D’Amato said.
The Eddie Read field will include D’Amato’s Balnikhov, who won the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields in April, but was eighth of 11 behind Exaulted in the Shoemaker Mile on May 29.
Exaulted, trained by Peter Eurton, is not scheduled to start again until the Del Mar Mile.
Hong Kong Harry, second in the 2022 Eddie Read Stakes for D’Amato, will miss the race this year. D’Amato said that Hong Kong Harry was scheduled to be shipped from a local farm to Santa Anita on Thursday, ending a three-week turnout.
Hong Kong Harry, a three-time graded stakes winner in 2022, is winless in three starts this year in Grade 1 races, including a troubled third in the Shoemaker Mile. Hong Kong Harry will be trained for the Del Mar Mile.
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