Diversify ending layoff in Charles Town Classic

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fl. – Trainer Rick Violette toyed at one point with the idea of running his Grade 1 winner Diversify in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup. But when that window of opportunity closed earlier this winter, Violette decided on taking another path with the speedy New York-bred, who will now kick off his 2018 campaign a week from Saturday in the $1.2 million Charles Town Classic.

Diversify has spent the past several months at the Palm Meadows training center, where he’ll have one more work this weekend prior to shipping out early next week for the race.

“He’s doing great and, fortunately, we haven’t had a hiccup the whole time he’s been here,” Violette said Thursday. “He breezed great last week, galloped out in 1:13, which was strong over that track on Monday. And the previous work, I had Irad [Ortiz] on him and he had to take him out in the six path turning for home to keep him from running away from his company by too much.”

Diversify has not started since finishing fourth as the favorite in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs on Nov. 24. He became a Grade 1 winner seven weeks earlier at Belmont Park with a wire-to-wire victory over Keen Ice in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Diversify, who is owned by Ralph and Lauren Evans, won four of eight starts in 2017 for earnings in excess of $690,000.

The Grade 2 Charles Town Classic will be run at 1 1/8 miles around three turns.

“Obviously this race will be a big step off the bench, but he runs well fresh, and although he’s a big horse, he’s very handy and turns pretty well,” Violette said. “His speed will certainly be an asset for him there.”

Violette said that because Diversify is a gelding, finding the right race for the right purse is more a consideration than winning another Grade 1 this year.

“We flirted with the Pegasus . . . if he had really rallied and come around quickly after we gave him some time to recuperate from a long year following the Clark,” Violette said. “When he didn’t, we just decided to give him all the time he needed before bringing him back. Looking down the road, the Met Mile could be an option, although he could even pop up in a New York-bred race or two this summer. We’ll just wait and see.”

Violette said Diversify will have a maintenance half-mile at Palm Meadows either Sunday or Monday before shipping to the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, from where he’ll van to Charles Town for the race.

Diversify will be joined in Charles Town by the Gulfstream-based War Story, who’ll be back for a second chance at the Classic after having finished third, beaten just a half length by winner Imperative, a year ago. War Story exits an impressive 6 3/4-length victory in the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs following a 10th-place finish in the Pegasus World Cup.

“I just don’t think he cares for the track at Gulfstream,” trainer Jorge Navarro said. “He’s just never been that strong here and seems to thrive everywhere else we take him.”

Navarro said Javier Castellano will replace Irad Ortiz, who rides Diversify, in the Charles Town Classic.

Navarro also said that X Y Jet has returned to the U.S. from his heartbreaking second-place finish to Mind Your Biscuits in the Dubai Golden Shaheen and is getting a break of his own at Fair Hill.

“I’m still trying to get over that beat, which is the second time in three years for him in Dubai,” Navarro said. “We went hard on him for the race, so he’ll get a rest now. Probably two months. The main thing is he came back as clean as a whistle.”

In fact, X Y Jet came through the race better than Navarro, who admitted he never really saw the finish while experiencing some scary health issues during the running of the Golden Shaheen.

“When they turned into the stretch I remember thinking we were going to win, and then I got pretty sick,” he said. “I blacked out, and had to ask a family member if we’d won or not.”

My Miss Tapit returns

Saturday’s 12-race card is highlighted by a second-level optional-claiming test for fillies and mares that features the return of trainer Todd Pletcher’s stakes-winning 4-year-old My Miss Tapit. The seven-furlong race has a $48,000 purse.

My Miss Tapit launched her career with two local victories a year ago, including a 1 1/4-length tally in the restricted Game Face Stakes. She subsequently finished fourth in the Grade 2 Mother Goose at Belmont Park, and has not started since a fifth-place effort in the Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks on Aug. 12.

Trainer David Fawkes will counter with the uncoupled pair of Florida Fabulous and the stakes-winning Surprise Wedding, who returns to the main track off a second-place finish in the Distaff Turf at Tampa Bay Downs.