Dirt marathon ace Next back in light training, might race again
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Next, who dominated marathon dirt stakes in 2023-24, could be making a comeback.
Next, unraced since finishing last in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2024, worked three furlongs in 38.40 seconds on Feb. 28 at Turfway Park. Trainer Doug Cowans has been galloping the horse since but is likely to get him on a regular breeze schedule soon.
“I had no intention of bringing him back, but he’s happier at the track than the farm,” Cowans said. “I was playing around with him, and I got him up to a breeze. I’ll start mapping out breezes every seven days or so, let the horse tell me.
“I don’t have a race planned, the horse is happy, I’m just going to roll with it for a minute and see what happens.”
Next, a gelding by Not This Time, won nine of 10 starts from Sept. 8, 2022 to Sept. 21, 2024. Included in that run were two runnings of the Grade 2 Brooklyn Stakes in New York – one at Belmont, one at Aqueduct – and two runnings of the Grade 2 Greenwood Cup at Parx. His average margin of victory in those nine races was almost 13 lengths.
Cowans took a chance by running him in the BC Classic, a race in which the usually front-running horse never got near the lead and finished last of 14, 34 1/4 lengths behind Sierra Leone. Cowans turned Next out for 45 days after the Breeders’ Cup and said the gelding had a few minor issues when he tried to bring him back last year so he turned him out again.
Cowans said whether or not Next makes it back to the races in 2026, this would be his final year of racing.
“I won’t run him past this year if I do run him,” Cowans said. “He enjoys being at the barn, he goes out there and trains. I didn’t have a plan when I brought him back in here.”
Next has won 13 starts from 24 starts and has earned $1.3 million.
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