East Hall fresh and ready to resume season

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With a little luck, trainer Bill Kaplan will have two of his top horses back in action this weekend.

Kaplan is targeting allowance races in the condition book on Sunday for East Hall and My Point Exactly. East Hall has been idle since finishing a distant fourth behind Commissioner in the Grade 3 Skip Away here March 28, while My Point Exactly exits a third-place finish in an overnight stakes April 25.

East Hall, who won the Ohio Derby and Indiana Derby last year at 3, tailed off a bit as the winter progressed after opening his 2015 campaign with a second-place finish behind Sr. Quisqueyano in the Sunshine Millions Classic. East Hall was fifth in the Grade 1 Donn and fifth in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap, and after the Skip Away, he got a bit of a break.

“The competition might have been a little too tough down here this winter, but he also didn’t have his normal finish in those races, which is why I decided to just back off him a bit after the Skip Away,” said Kaplan.

Kaplan said if the allowance race doesn’t fill Sunday, he will consider sending East Hall to Texas for the Grade 3 Lone Star Handicap on May 25.

The 3-year-old My Point Exactly won the Sunday Silence on turf at Louisiana Downs in his 2-year-old finale and finished seventh in the Grade 1 Florida Derby in his first start this year. He worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 over the main track here Sunday and galloped out extremely well before pulling up a mile in 1:42.

“I’m going to put My Point Exactly back on the turf,” said Kaplan. “He won a stakes on the grass as a 2-year-old, although I think he can run anywhere. We got a little too ambitious bringing him back this year in the Florida Derby, but his last race was good, and he seems to be back to himself now. I can tell from his works.”