Majestic City, Motown Men tune up for Gold Cup

ARCADIA, Calif. - Four nominees for next Saturday’s $500,000 Gold Cup at Santa Anita, including the 2015 stakes winners Majestic City and Motown Men, had their final workouts on Sunday.

Motown Men, the winner of the Tiznow Stakes for California-breds on May 23, went the farthest, exercising seven furlongs in 1:23.40 under jockey Tyler Baze. Motown Men began the workout alone, but was joined a half-mile from the finish by an unidentified horse from another stable.

“I wouldn’t let him by,” Baze said.

The Gold Cup at Santa Anita is run at 1 1/4 miles on dirt, and will be the Grade 1 stakes debut for Motown Men, who races for Gulliver Racing and trainer Ted H. West.

Majestic City, who won the Grade 3 Lone Star Park Handicap in Texas on May 25, worked five furlongs in 59.40 seconds on Sunday. Trained by Richard Baltas, Majestic City, 6, will make his sixth career appearance in a Grade 1. His best finish at that level has been a second to Dullahan in the Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland in October 2011.

Hard Aces, who was third in the Grade 2 Californian Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on May 30, worked six furlongs in 1:13. Trained by John Sadler, Hard Aces has yet to win a graded stakes, but did win the Louisiana Handicap at Fair Grounds in January when trained by Larry Jones.

Sky Kingdom, a three-time stakes winner, worked a half-mile in 48.80 seconds. Although he is nominated, trainer Bob Baffert has not stated that Sky Kingdom will run. The stable also has Hoppertunity, the winner of the Grade 1 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs last November, for the Gold Cup.

The Gold Cup has a field of 10 probable starters, including Big Cazanova, Catch a Flight, Finnegans Wake, Lideris, Moreno, and Poshsky. Catch a Flight will be favored on the basis of his wins in the Grade 3 Precisionist Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on May 2 and the Californian Stakes. Earlier this year, Catch a Flight was third in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap behind Shared Belief and Moreno.