Grade 1 winner Locked returns to work tab
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Locked, a Grade 1-winning 2-year-old of 2023 who went to the sidelines in late winter with a ligament injury, returned to the work tab Monday, breezing three furlongs in 38.45 seconds over Saratoga’s main track.
It was his first on-track work since February, though trainer Todd Pletcher said Locked had breezed a couple of times at Stonestreet Farm in Ocala, Fla., before being sent to him earlier this month.
“He came in with a good foundation. He handled that breeze very easily, he’s ready to go a half [mile] next time,” Pletcher said. “We don’t have any specific target in mind other than getting him ready.”
Locked, a son of Gun Runner owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Walmac Farm, won a maiden race at Saratoga by 7 1/4 lengths last Sept. 1 in his second career start. He won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and was sent off the 2-1 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, where he finished third behind stablemate Fierceness.
Locked was being pointed to the Sam F. Davis at Tampa in February but missed that race due to a fever. He was entered in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream on March 2, but was scratched the morning of the race after Pletcher didn’t like the way he was traveling.
“It was a pretty odd injury,” Pletcher said. “Unfortunate, too. Given his running style, he would have liked the [fast] pace scenario in the [Kentucky] Derby, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
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