Keen Ice, Destin drill for Jockey Club Gold Cup

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher could run as many as three horses in the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Oct. 7 at Belmont Park, and on Saturday, all three put in workouts in preparation for the 1 1/4-mile race.

Pletcher’s two definite Gold Cup starters, Keen Ice and Destin, worked five furlongs in 1:00.97 together Saturday morning over the Belmont Park training track. Meanwhile, at Saratoga, Rally Cry worked a half-mile in 50.03 seconds.

Keen Ice has typically been a good work horse, but he may be bringing out the best in Destin. With Destin on the inside under Irad Ortiz Jr., the team went in fractions of 12.47 seconds, 24.16, 35.76, and got their final quarter in 25.19. They galloped out together in 1:14.65, and then Keen Ice started to edge clear through a double gallop-out in 1:28.62.

“It was a good, solid breeze from both,” Pletcher said. “I thought Destin held in there pretty well with him today to the wire and most of the gallop-out. Keen Ice, the strength of his breezes has always been the consistency with which he gallops out. I thought it was a good, productive work from both horses.”

Keen Ice, who won the Grade 2 Suburban here in July, is coming off a second-place finish behind Gun Runner in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 5. Destin, beaten a nose in the 2016 Belmont Stakes, is coming off a nose victory in a third-level allowance race at Saratoga on Aug. 23, his second start of the year. Previously, he had finished third in an allowance race at Belmont.

“I think he’s steadily improving,” Pletcher said of Destin. “His first race was okay, his second race was better, and with some solid training in between, he should be starting to round into top form.”

Rally Cry was beaten 10 1/2 lengths by Gun Runner in the Woodward on Sept. 2. Pletcher has not yet decided if he will run him in the Gold Cup.

Pavel, the 3-year-old who won the Smarty Jones Stakes at Parx on Sept. 4, is scheduled to ship here on Monday from Parx, trainer Doug O’Neill said. Good Samaritan, the Jim Dandy Stakes winner, and Ascend, the winner of the Grade 1 Manhattan on turf here in June, are others under consideration for the Gold Cup.

Two horses expected to run in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Vosburgh here worked Saturday morning at Belmont. El Deal, the Jorge Navarro-trained winner of the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga, worked five furlongs in 1:00.91 over the main track, with a final quarter in 24.87. El Deal broke off at the five-furlong pole and hooked up with a Bill Mott trainee who broke off at the half-mile pole. Still, El Deal was well in hand and finished well.

Mr. Crow, trained by Pletcher, worked a half-mile in 49.75 seconds, getting his final three furlongs in 36.89. Mr. Crow switched leads in his works this week and last, something he didn’t do in his two victories at Saratoga.

Pletcher said he told exercise rider Hector Ramos, “Ask him one time. If he gives it to you, fine. If he doesn’t, don’t make a big deal out of it. It seemed to work.”