Five Iron on fence for Sky Classic

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Multiple graded stakes winner Five Iron, who faded to sixth after an early pace duel with Really Sharp in the Grade 2 Nijinsky Stakes in his last start July 19, could run in Saturday’s Grade 2 Sky Classic Stakes at Woodbine for trainer Brian Lynch.

“We’ll certainly look at the race if there’s no speed,” he said. “We got into suicide fractions with Ian Black’s horse [in the Nijinsky], and that certainly took us out of our own tactics.”

Lynch said he also was considering the Grade 3, $100,000 Cliff Hanger Stakes over 1 1/8 miles at Monmouth Park on Aug. 24 for Five Iron.

“I feel that a mile and a quarter is definitely his limit,” he said. “I feel [the Cliff Hanger] might be the spot for him because it’s a speed-favoring track, and with these sort of races going on at the moment – the Sky Classic and the Sword Dancer and Arlington’s big races – it might not come up as the toughest group.”

Other likely starters for the Sky Classic include Grade 3 Singspiel Stakes winner Aldous Snow and third-place finisher Dynamic Sky.

Nijinsky winner Up With the Birds was nominated to the Sky Classic but will instead run in the Grade 1 Arlington Million on Saturday in an attempt to earn a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in November.

“[Owner] Sam-Son [Farm] wants to try this horse against the best in the world,” said trainer Malcolm Pierce.