Little Mike, Wise Dan on collision course in Woodford Reserve Turf Classic

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike likely will make his 2014 debut in the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard at Churchill Downs on May 3, owner and trainer Carlo Vaccarezza said Monday. Little Mike won the 2012 Woodford Reserve for Vaccarezza while trained by Dale Romans.

Two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan also is being pointed for the Woodford Reserve.

Little Mike has not started since finishing ninth in the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin on Dec. 9. Vaccarezza took over the training of Little Mike from Romans when the horse returned from Crupi’s New Castle Farm in Ocala, Fla., to Gulfstream Park this winter. On Sunday, Little Mike worked seven furlongs over the Gulfstream turf course in 1:25.60 with jockey Paco Lopez aboard, although Vaccarezza said Mike Smith will have the mount in the Woodford Reserve.

“The way he breezed on Sunday, I think he’s ready to run in a race like the Woodford Reserve,” Vaccarezza said. “He was just galloping along, just cruising, and didn’t turn a hair even though he had to work with the sirens blaring and all the commotion on the main track, where a horse had broken down at the finish line.”

Vaccarezza said Little Mike has gotten ready to race relatively quickly because of the care he received at Crupi’s New Castle Farm and the whirlpool treatments he and all the barn’s horses receive.

Vaccarezza said he’s been contacted recently by Churchill Downs racing secretary Ben Huffman and his assistant, Dan Bork, advising him that the field for the Woodford Reserve figures to be small since Wise Dan is pointing for the race.

“It sounds like it’s going to be a five- or six-horse field,” Vaccarezza said. “Wise Dan is scaring a lot of people away. He’s definitely the horse to beat, but I’m a lot less scared of him at a mile and one-eighth than if it was at a mile, since my horse is much more proven at that distance than he is.”