Ethereal Road fine after being pulled up in work
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The 3-year-old Ethereal Road was working alongside the unraced 2-year-old Major Blue when the pair went into the mist that enveloped the Oklahoma training track Friday morning in Saratoga. Only Major Blue came out of the mist to finish the work.
Ethereal Road, the Sir Barton Stakes winner, bolted around the far turn and was pulled up by jockey Luis Saez. Saez never got off the horse and walked Ethereal Road back to the barn.
“He saw something,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas said. “Luis said there’s something they put down there so we aborted that one. He’s okay. We’ll work him back.”
Ethereal Road, most recently sixth in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby, is pointing toward the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy here on July 30.
Lukas said Ethereal Road was dealing with a quarter crack going into the Sir Barton, but he felt that was no longer an issue.
“We laced it and patched it and that’s pretty much behind us,” Lukas said.
Lukas said he would likely work Ethereal Road in a few days for the Jim Dandy.
Meanwhile, Lukas blamed himself for Summer Promise’s second-place finish as the favorite behind Just Cindy in Thursday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Schuylerville Stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
“Bad training job,” Lukas said. “I underestimated how deep and sandy the track was and she got tired. She’d been working over that Churchill track that’s been hard and fast. I thought that last eighth of a mile she got tired. She had that one good work, but I wish I’d done a little more with her but we know how to fix that.”
Lukas said he would point Summer Promise to the Grade 1 Spinaway here on Sept. 4 where she is likely to again meet Just Cindy.
The next dirt stakes for 2-year-old fillies here is the Grade 3, $200,000 Adirondack on Aug. 7, and Lukas plans to run Naughty Gal, a 9 1/4-length winner of a six-furlong maiden race at Churchill Downs on July 4.