Girvin on farm, back early next year

Girvin, among the best 3-year-olds of 2017, is on holiday at a Florida farm but should rejoin trainer Joe Sharp’s stable at Fair Grounds early next year.

Girvin won the $1 million Louisiana Derby earlier this year at Fair Grounds and went on to capture the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational July 30 at Monmouth Park. But after finishing 11th in the Travers Stakes and fifth in the Sept. 24 Oklahoma Derby, he was sent to owner Brad Grady’s Grand Oaks farm for a freshening.

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“We turned him out right after the Oklahoma Derby,” Sharp said. “They have a full training facility over there, and they’ll get him legged up. He’ll probably be back to us by the end of February.”

Sharp said he and Grady haven’t yet mapped out a 2018 campaign for Girvin “other than to keep running him.”

“You just hope they come back good,” Sharp said.

Sharp last winter ran strings at Fair Grounds and in south Florida, but he said he will be stabled only in New Orleans this winter.