Discovery winner Performer among workers for Grade 1 Runhappy Carter

ELMONT, N.Y. - Performer completed preparation for his belated 4-year-old debut in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Runhappy Carter Handicap by working a sharp five furlongs in 59.60 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track.

It was the 15th breeze this year for Performer, who has not run since winning the Grade 3 Discovery last Nov. 30. The Carter was always going to be his return race, it just happens to be two months later than scheduled.

Trainer Shug McGaughey said Performer would have been ready to run had the Carter been run on April 4 as originally scheduled. That was before the coronavirus pandemic forced New York racing to shut down in mid-March.

McGaughey kept Performer on a regular work schedule at Payson Park in Florida before shipping him to New York where he had his last two works.

“We accomplished a lot with him last year in five months so I thought I had him where I wanted him going into a 4-year-old year,” McGaughey said Saturday. “But running against 4-year-olds-and-up is a little different than running against 3-year-olds. I wanted to see him stay where he is and hopefully once we got to training on him that he would show some improvement, but he’s always been a very, very forward type of horse.”

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Performer was one of several Carter-bound horses who put in workouts Saturday morning.

Firenze Fire, a nine-time stakes winner, worked a half-mile in 49.05 seconds Saturday over the main track. The Carter will be his first start for trainer Kelly Breen, who received the horse from owner Ron Lombardi following the indictment of trainer Jason Servis in March for allegedly administering illegal drugs to horses.

Firenze Fire hasn’t run since winning the Grade 3 General George at Laurel Park on Feb. 15.

Breen said he’s mixed in regular workouts with extended gallops, similar to how Servis trained him.

“I tried to put a little bit of Jason’s style of training into it intermixed with what I normally would do and hope that works,” Breen said.

Breen said Manny Franco would ride Firenze Fire as his regular rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., has a call with Network Effect for trainer Chad Brown.

Also working for the Carter on Saturday were Mind Control, the two-time Grade 1 winner who went five furlongs in 1:01.20 over the main track, and Killybegs Captain, who went five furlongs in 1:00.20, the fastest of 20 breezes over the Belmont training track.

Others pointing to the Carter include Vekoma, Nitrous, and Bon Raison. Nicodemus and Wicked Trick are possible.

* Grade 1 winners Channel Maker (post 13) and Sadler’s Joy (post 8) head a field of 13 for the turf, plus two main-track only horses, entered for Thursday’s $80,000 Tiller Stakes, scheduled for 1 3/8 miles on turf at Belmont.