LoPresti unconcerned as Wise Dan trains wearing tape
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The colorful strips of tape Wise Dan wore on his hindquarters during training hours Tuesday and Wednesday may have looked alarming but were no cause for concern to the man they would matter to most, the two-time reigning Horse of the Year’s trainer, Charlie LoPresti.
“He has a little soreness in his sacrum, and all the tape does is hold the muscle to keep the sacrum from shifting out,” LoPresti said. “It’s not a magnet. It’s not medicated. It’s basically the equine brand of Kinesio tape that human athletes have been using more and more lately. The therapists call it preventive maintenance.”
Wise Dan did look a little stiff when he came out to gallop Monday. But he’s given exercise rider Damien Rock all he could handle the last two mornings, galloping at almost a two-minute clip Wednesday while adorned in a criss-cross pattern of black and red tape.
“He gets a little sore because he’s long-backed,” said LoPresti. “He was a little stiff on Monday because he was coming off a walk day after having worked last Friday. The equine therapists put the tape on him at night and advised it would really be good if he could train in it. I really didn’t want to do that because I was afraid people would start thinking there was something wrong with him, which there’s not. And the girls said, ‘What do you care?’ Now I’m starting to think, ‘What the heck is this tape deal? Have you seen that son of a gun train the last two days?’ ”
LoPresti said Wise Dan will work over the Oklahoma training track again Friday, as scheduled, after which he believes he’ll have a better handle on whether he can make the Grade 2 Fourstardave Handicap here Aug. 9. Wise Dan has won the Fourstardave in each of the last two summers.
“I’d like to try to make the Fourstardave if I can, but I really don’t want to run him with 129 or 130 pounds or if I have to give 10 pounds or more to everybody coming off colic surgery just a couple of months ago,” LoPresti said. “I could always wait for the Bernard Baruch or take him up to Woodbine for the Woodbine Mile.”
** Jose Lezcano will serve a three-day suspension July 28, 30, and 31 for a careless-riding infraction from the fifth race on opening day. The suspension was reduced from seven days for Lezcano waiving his right of appeal.
** Corey Lanerie appealed a careless-riding suspension issued to him for his ride in the seventh race Saturday.