Jerkens encouraged by Wicked Strong’s return

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Jimmy Jerkens said he was quite pleased with Wicked Strong’s 2015 debut, a fourth-place finish in the one-mile Gulfstream Park Handicap. Wicked Strong earned a career-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure while beaten just a length by the winner, Honor Code. Wicked Strong was making his first start since clipping heels and losing his rider, Rajiv Maragh, more than five months earlier in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

“He hasn’t had that kind of a race in a long time,” said Jerkens. “He’s raced almost exclusively around two turns. A mile race is different. They have to run the whole way while chasing horses that in this case don’t stop. When the winner went by, I thought he made another effort. He didn’t have a lot of acceleration, but he tried to come back on. We were happy with it.”

Jerkens said Wicked Strong could make his next start at Keeneland in the Grade 3 Ben Ali going 1 1/8 miles on April 11.

“We were thinking of trying the race at Keeneland because the Breeders’ Cup is going to be there, and we’d like to see how he gets over the track,” Jerkens said.

Jerkens also said that V. E. Day continues to progress toward his 2015 debut. V. E. Day, who defeated Wicked Strong by a nose in the Travers last year, was freshened after his 11th-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Jerkens said V. E. Day worked recently on turf and might run in a grass stakes at Aqueduct in early April. V. E. Day won an allowance race on turf last summer.

◗ Tonalist, the winner of the Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup last year, worked an easy three furlongs in 37 seconds Sunday at Payson Park. The breeze was the first for him in five weeks. Trainer Christophe Clement said he doesn’t have a spot picked out for Tonalist’s 4-year-old debut.

“There’s nothing wrong with him, I just knew I wasn’t going to run him, so I gave him a little time,” said Clement.