How's Al Today seems ready to go straight into Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf
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On Beyer Speed Figures, only two 2-year-olds, the colt U. S. S. Valor and the filly Summer Starlet, have run faster this year than How’s Al Today, and on turf, the 94 Beyer that How’s Al Today earned winning the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile is seven points higher than the next-highest 2-year-old figure.
If that sounds like a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf horse, How’s Al Today’s connections concur. In fact, having run twice in 11 days at the brief Kentucky Downs meet, How’s Al Today probably makes his next start in the BC Juvenile Turf on Oct. 30 at Keeneland.
“Should we run him in one of those last preps? Ownership and myself are leaning toward training him to the Breeders’ Cup,” trainer Riley Mott said.
How’s Al Today already has made four starts: He won his debut going 5 1/2 furlongs on Churchill Downs dirt, then finished a distant third in the Saratoga Special on Aug. 1. Mott said that an exercise rider had told him before How’s Al Today debuted that the colt “kind of feels a little turfy.” Mott had grass in mind all along, but after How’s Al Today aced his debut, he had to get a second dirt chance. First work back from the Saratoga Special, How’s Al Today breezed on turf – and breezed well. On Aug. 29, he showed up in a 6 1/2-furlong Kentucky Downs sprint restricted to Keeneland yearling sales graduates, won that by four lengths, and had absolutely no trouble getting a mile capturing the $731,000 Juvenile Mile by 4 1/2 lengths.
“He’s a very active colt – likes going out early in the morning and doesn’t like being in his stall all day. He’s the perfect horse to run back in nine days,” Mott said.
Mott trains How’s Al Today for Al Gold’s Gold Square. Gold, with guidance from trainer Chad Summers, bought the colt, a son of Munnings and Into Magic, by Into Mischief, for $200,000 – and has himself a Breeders’ Cup horse.
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