Lynch gives Our Braintrust a break, sends Congrats Gal to Schuylerville

Trainer Cal Lynch is backing off one of the promising 2-year-olds in his Laurel Park stable and going for the gold with another.

Lynch had been pointing Tremont Stakes winner Our Braintrust to Saturday’s Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga but has decided to back off on the colt's training. Congrats Gal, who has been breaking stopwatches at Laurel, will run Friday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Schuylerville at Saratoga.

Our Braintrust is 2 for 2. He rallied to win a Laurel maiden race in his debut, then shipped to Belmont Park for the $150,000 Tremont. He came up the inside from several lengths back to win by three-quarters of a length.

Lynch bought Our Braintrust for $25,000 after he failed to meet his reserve price at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale last October. He is partners in the Freud colt with his longtime client Bo Smith.

Our Braintrust worked five furlongs July 6 at Laurel but has developed "a little shin" and has a "few minor issues" they have been working though, according to Lynch.

"He's in my barn right now, and we're going to let him wind down a little bit," he said. "We might even send him to the farm for a little while, give him the summer off. I expect to run him in the fall."

Our Braintrust is Maryland-bred and also eligible for the New York Stallion Series. Even though he has won at 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 furlongs, Lynch expects him to be at his best going longer distances.

"I've always thought he'd be better at two turns, and maybe on turf," Lynch said. "He's a big horse, big framed. We're going to give him a chance to grow up."

Two days after Our Braintrust won the June 8 Tremont, Congrats Gal won her Laurel debut by 6 1/4 lengths. She burst out of the gate to an open lead under jockey J.D. Acosta and then widened her advantage in the stretch while not being asked hard late.

Congrats Gal has worked four times since her five-furlong victory, including five-furlong bullets of 59.20 seconds on June 30 and 58.80 last Saturday.

"She's been working quite fast but doing it effortlessly," Lynch said. "After her work last weekend, I said to J.D., 'You went a little quick,' and he told me her was sitting against her the whole time."

Congrats Gal was a $57,000 purchase in April by owner Charles Biggs at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. spring auction of 2-year-olds in training. In a recent conversation, Lynch tried to temper his enthusiasm, but he obviously is excited by how Congrats Gal is coming into the six-furlong Schuylerville.

"She's got to go up there and prove she belongs, but she's an exceptional athlete," he said. "She's a very cool filly, very calm. Being by Congrats, she might be able to carry her speed a ways."

J.D. Acosta has ridden 3,164 winners during his career, but the Schuylerville will be his first mount at Saratoga.

"We talked about rider, and Mr. Biggs wanted J.D. if he wanted to go, and he does," Lynch said. "I've got 17 2-year-olds in the barn right now, and J.D. has probably gotten on 15 of them."

Acosta was aboard for Lynch's first graded win in the 2013 General George at Laurel. If Congrats Gal is successful Friday, the win will be Lynch's first at Saratoga.