Green Light Go works half-mile for Carter Handicap
Green Light Go sped around the Belmont Park training track Sunday morning, working a half-mile in 46.42 seconds in preparation for a start in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9. It was the fastest of 81 works at the distance for the winner of the Feb. 26 Stymie Stakes.
The track has produced slow times throughout the winter, had some moisture in it from overnight rains, and played quite fast on the first morning of spring.
“He bounced along there pretty good,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said. “He lost a little weight after the last race, I didn’t want to do too much until he got it back on. He went a little faster than I wanted today. As slow as this track was all winter ... then it gets fast like this.”
The Carter will be Green Light Go’s first start in a Grade 1 since he finished second to Tiz the Law in the 2019 Champagne Stakes at Belmont.
“You got nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Jerkens said. “Now, we’re in a spot with him where if he could improve enough to get lucky in there or even get a check, it looks better on his page if they want to stand him at stud somewhere.”
Wudda U Think Now, who had been under consideration for the Carter, will not run in that race, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Sunday. Instead, he will look for an allowance race or the $100,000 Affirmed Success on April 29 at Belmont Park.
Wudda U Think Now has earned a 104 Beyer Speed Figure in each of his last two starts including a 4 1/4-length victory in the Hollie Hughes Stakes at Aqueduct on Feb. 19.
Bella Sofia returns to worktab
Bella Sofia, the Grade 1 Test winner of 2021, worked three furlongs in 37.00 seconds Sunday morning at Belmont Park. It was her first breeze since rejoining trainer Rudy Rodriguez’s barn a few weeks ago.
Bella Sofia hasn’t run since she finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Del Mar last Nov. 6. She had been on a farm since late November.
Trevor McCarthy was up for the breeze.
“He was very happy with her,” Rodriguez said. “I told him if he could go in 38 that’d be perfect. I just wanted something to start with her. I just want to take it easy with her.”
Rodriguez said Bella Sofia’s first start of the year could be in the Grade 2, $300,000 Bed o’ Roses at Belmont on June 10. If she comes to hand earlier, there is the Grade 3, $150,000 Vagrancy, also at Belmont, on May 14.
Rodriguez said major targets for Bells Sofia this year are the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 28 and the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Keeneland on Nov. 5.