Gun Song pointing toward Acorn after Black-Eyed Susan victory

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Gun Song, the 3 1/4-length winner of last Friday’s Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, is back in New York, where she will train toward a potential start in the Grade 1, $500,000 Acorn Stakes at Saratoga on June 7, trainer Mark Hennig said.

“We’ll nominate to the Acorn and see how she’s doing,” Hennig said Monday at his Belmont barn.

Gun Song, a daughter of Gun Runner, bounced back from a fourth-place finish in the Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 30 with a fairly dominant performance in the Black-Eyed Susan, affirming Hennig’s belief that two turns and 1 1/8 miles were well within Gun Song’s reach. He had thought she could go a route of ground after Gun Song’s 5 3/4-length allowance win at Gulfstream in February.

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“I thought she handled the distance like I always thought she would,” Hennig said. “For me, the only race that didn’t go well was the one at Gulfstream. Based on her three route races, there’s no reason to think she can’t run a distance. She looked like she handled the mile and an eighth and galloped out very strong afterwards. It wasn’t like she was shortening stride coming to the wire.”

Running in the Acorn would mean running back in three weeks, but Hennig noted that she had seven weeks from an allowance win at Gulfstream to the Gulfstream Oaks – where she did miss some time due to a splint bone issue – and seven weeks from the Gulfstream Oaks to the Black-Eyed Susan.

“It’s not like we’ve been running the hell out of her,” Hennig said. “If she’s doing well [the Acorn] is definitely a strong possibility.”

Thorpedo Anna and Just F Y I, the top two finishers from the Kentucky Oaks, are being pointed to the Acorn, though Thorpedo Anna is also being considered for the Belmont Stakes on June 8.

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