Gulfstream Park: War Dancer will give dirt a try again in Skip Away

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Although War Dancer was considered to be primarily a turf horse following his victory in the Grade 2 Virginia Derby last year at 3, trainer Ken McPeek will switch the horse back to the main track here next Saturday in the Grade 3 Skip Away.

War Dancer, a son of War Front, launched his 2014 campaign this month on grass, finishing sixth as the 2-1 favorite under high-priced optional-claiming conditions. But after working five furlongs in 1:02.17 over the main track with jockey Joel Rosario aboard Friday, War Dancer will be given another opportunity to prove his mettle on dirt.

“I like the Skip Away for him for three reasons,” McPeek said. “We love the mile and three-sixteenths, I’m concerned the spot I had picked out for him at Keeneland wouldn’t fill, and because he’s here. He just had an easy maintenance work this morning. I didn’t have Joel set the pedal to the metal.”

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War Dancer hasn’t raced on dirt since finishing sixth, beaten six lengths by Will Take Charge, in the Grade 1 Travers last summer at Saratoga.

“We were actually very pleased with War Dancer’s race in the Travers in the sense he only got beat six lengths to a horse who was one of the top 3-year-olds in the nation,” McPeek said. “I also thought he had a questionable trip that day. I think we might have been guilty of pigeonholing him as a turf horse early in his career. His sire was strictly a dirt horse, and his broodmare sire was a dirt horse. I’m not sure the speed-favoring track here will suit him, but otherwise, this looks like an ideal spot to try him back on dirt again.”

McPeek also sent out Golden Ticket and Rosalind to work Friday for stakes assignments out of town. Golden Ticket, narrowly defeated by Palace Malice while making his 2014 debut in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap, breezed an easy half-mile in 51.10 seconds under exercise rider Danny Ramsey shortly after the track opened at 5:30 a.m. Rosalind, who finished full of run to be third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, went five furlongs under Rosario in 1:02.82 in company with Steal to Victory.

Golden Ticket will make his next start in the Grade 1 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct on April 5, while Rosalind heads to Keeneland for the Grade 1 Ashland, rather than staying locally to compete in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks next Saturday.