Maiden winner Filoso headed to Breeders' Futurity

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Filoso, a maiden winner at Saratoga this summer, is heading to the Breeders’ Futurity to take advantage of the two turns.

“The two turns made the most sense,” said Chad Summers, who trains Filoso for owner Al Gold. “Is there an eye towards the Breeders’ Cup? Of course, but there’s also an eye toward his 3-year-old campaign. You want to see where you’re at and where you stack up.”

After finishing fourth on debut July 20, Filoso, a son of City of Light, won a one-mile maiden race by 3 1/2 lengths on Aug. 29 at Saratoga.

“He made three moves in that second race,” Summers said. “I thought he ran sneaky-good in the first race.”

Filoso’s victory on Aug. 29 may have kept Summers in training. Summers, best known as the trainer of Grade 1-winning sprinter Mind Your Biscuits, said he was planning to retire from training after Saratoga and just work for Gold as a bloodstock/racing manager.

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“There’s an old saying that a good 2-year-old gets you out of bed in the morning,” Summers said. “Filoso won on the Thursday before closing day and that just put a new wrinkle on things. It’s tough to walk away completely when you have a horse like that.”

Summers has 14 horses based at Belmont but was planning to ship Filoso and Air of Defiance to Keeneland. The latter is scheduled to run in an allowance race.

John Velazquez will ride Filoso in the Breeders’ Futurity. On Wednesday, Velazquez worked Filoso a half-mile in 48.63 seconds over the Belmont training track. He chased a pair of Tom Morley-trained horses to the wire.

“The closer he got to them, the more aggressive he got,” Velazquez said. “It was nice.”

Velazquez had worked the horse three months ago and was supposed to ride him but wound up being committed to another horse who ultimately scratched the day Filoso debuted. Dylan Davis rode Filoso in each of his two starts, but since he is committed to ride in New York on Oct. 5, the mount became open for Velazquez.

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