Elate, Channel Maker work in company for weekend stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Elate, the 2017 Alabama winner, worked a solid half-mile in 48.44 seconds Sunday morning over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign Stakes.

Elate, under exercise rider Neil Poznansky, started four lengths behind stablemate Channel Maker, and tracked that one going in splits of 12.62 seconds and 24.34. She tipped outside at the quarter pole, engaged Channel Maker at the three-sixteenths, and finished a length in front at the wire through a final quarter in 24.10 seconds. Elate galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.94 and six furlongs in 1:15.97.

Channel Maker, a two-time Grade 1 winner on turf, worked four furlongs in 49.50 seconds, in preparation for a start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $850,000 Sword Dancer.

“Neil was very happy with the work this morning,” trainer Bill Mott said. “She should be pretty fit now because she’s had plenty of racing.”

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Elate has raced four times this year and is coming into the Personal Ensign off of victories in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs in June and the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park in July.

Elate finished second to Abel Tasman in last year's Personal Ensign, a controversial race as the two bumped in deep stretch.

In this year’s renewal, Elate will face Midnight Bisou, the leader of the older filly and mare dirt division with five graded stakes wins this year.

Others pointing to the Personal Ensign include Coach Rocks, Golden Award, She’s a Julie, and Wow Cat.

► Bulletin, the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner, worked a half-mile in 50.31 seconds Sunday morning over the Oklahoma training track. He is scheduled to make his next start in next Sunday’s $100,000 Better Talk Now Stakes at a mile on turf.

Bulletin has not run since finishing fourth in the William Walker Stakes at Churchill Downs on April 27. He was scheduled to race in June at the Royal Ascot meeting but developed a temperature that caused him to miss several weeks of training.