Country Grammer in, Pletcher out, of Preakness

ELMONT, N.Y. - Country Grammer, winner of the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes at Saratoga, will run in next Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, trainer Chad Brown said Saturday.

Country Grammer, a son of Tonalist owned by Paul Pompa Jr., is coming off a fifth-place finish behind Tiz the Law in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 8. That race was run just 23 days after Country Grammer beat Caracaro in the Peter Pan, a 1 1/8-mile race typically run in May at Belmont that this year was run at Saratoga on July 16.

“This horse seems to need more time in between starts, and now that he’s been rested he seems like he’s ready to run a good race like he did in the Peter Pan,” Brown said. “So, the owner is keen to take a shot in the Preakness because of the timing and the distance of the race. He’s certainly healthy enough and doing well enough to go ahead with it. We re going to take our shot and hopefully he’s good enough to get a piece.”

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Brown, who won the 2017 Preakness with Cloud Computing, said Victor Carrasco will ride Country Grammer in the Preakness. Carrasco recently won the All Along Stakes for Brown aboard Nay Lady Nay at Laurel.

On Saturday, at Belmont Park, Country Grammer worked a half-mile in 50.40 seconds over the Belmont Park main track. He went in company with Value Engineering, going equal splits of 25.20 seconds with Country Grammer finishing about a length in front at the wire, according to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Vesce. Country Grammer galloped-out five furlongs in 1:03.20 and six furlongs in 1:16.40, according to Vesce.

Brown said another reason to run in the Preakness is there are really no other races restricted to 3-year-olds that looked appealing.

“I agree with Paul there are no other options other than to just keep training the horse,” Brown said. “We’ve said all along he’s probably a mile and a quarter horse, so why not take our shot?

Happy Saver to Gold Cup; Dr Post to farm

Trainer Todd Pletcher will be skipping the Preakness this year.

Pletcher said Saturday that Happy Saver, winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park on Sept. 7, will bypass the Preakness and aim for the Grade 1, $250,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 19.

Dr Post, runner-up in the Belmont Stakes but most recently fourth in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, has been sent to the farm and will be freshened for a 4-year-old campaign, Pletcher said.

Happy Saver, a son of Super Saver, earned a fees-paid berth into the Preakness by virtue of his 1 1/2-length victory in the Federico Tesio Stakes. That win made him 3 for 3 for his career, but Pletcher felt the horse may not be seasoned enough to take on a big field in the Preakness. The Jockey Club Gold Cup, while it presumably is for 3-year-olds and up, is expected to have a short field consisting of Tacitus, Prioritize, and Mystic Guide, a 3-year-old who won the Jim Dandy.

“We just felt like it’s a little better timing for him,” said Pletcher, who trains Happy Saver for brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer. “He’s still a lightly seasoned horse, we felt like jumping into a big field against more-seasoned 3-year-olds, it may not be quite the right time for him.”

As for Dr Post, Pletcher said he was not enthused with the colt’s most recent workout at Saratoga. He and owners Vinnie and Teresa Viola decided to give the horse the remainder of the year off and point to a 4-year-old campaign, hoping to achieve the type of success they did a few years ago with Vino Rosso, whose 3-year-old campaign in 2018 ended after the Travers and who at 4 won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was named champion older horse.

“Hopefully, he comes back and has a productive 4-year-old year,” Pletcher said of Dr Post. “He’s always shown us he’s had what we consider top-level talent. We also always felt like he’d get better as he got older. There was no real reason we had to stop, other than we just felt it was the best way to manage his 4-year-old season.”

Liveyourbeastlife works for Preakness

Liveyourbeastlife, the runner-up to Mystic Guide in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy, worked six furlongs in 1:16.39 Saturday morning over Belmont Park’s main track in preparation for the Preakness.

Liveyourbeastlife worked in company with the New York-bred allowance winner Freaky Styley, going easy throughout following a fast workout last week. Liveyourbeastlife went from the half-mile pole to the wire in 50.34 seconds, then continued out another quarter-mile in 26.05.

“The track’s a little slow and I wanted him to work kind of slow today,” trainer Jorge Abreu said. “For me, that was good enough. He went pretty fast last week and I didn’t want to do the same thing. That’s why I kept the blinkers off him.”

Abreu said Liveyourbeastlife, who has to be supplemented to the Preakness by owner William Lawrence for a $25,000 fee, will ship to Maryland on Tuesday.

Trevor McCarthy will ride Liveyourbeastlife in the Preakness.