Finest City training up a storm

ARCADIA, Calif. – Finest City, the champion female sprinter of 2016, is training better than trainer Ian Kruljac expected as he considers where to run her next.

On Friday, Finest City worked five furlongs in 59.20 seconds at Santa Anita, the fastest of 56 works at the distance.

Finest City was second to Vale Dori in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on March 18. Kruljac’s choices for her next start include the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at seven furlongs at Churchill Downs on May 6 or the Grade 1 Beholder Mile here on June 3.

“If she keeps working in 59, I don’t think I can wait 77 days,” he said of the gap between the Santa Margarita and the Beholder Mile.

As for the Humana Distaff, Kruljac said the race “is not out of the question.”