Maxfield has first Fair Grounds work; could return in Dec. 19 Tenacious

Maxfield worked five furlongs Monday at Fair Grounds after being moved from Louisville to New Orleans around Nov. 20 and could make his first start since May as early as the Dec. 19 Tenacious Stakes.

Three-year-old Maxfield is unbeaten in three starts but is coming back from his second significant injury. After winning his debut and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, he went to Santa Anita as one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but was diagnosed the week of the race with a chipped ankle and didn’t start.

Returning from that setback, Maxfield beat two of the better 3-year-olds of 2020, Ny Traffic and Pneumatic, while overcoming a troubled trip in the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes. Maxfield was preparing for a start in the Blue Grass Stakes but came out of a June 10 workout with a nondisplaced lateral condylar fracture in his right-front leg. The injury was surgically repaired using two screws, trainer Brendan Walsh said, and Maxfield returned to training in late summer, posting his first published workout Oct. 25.

Maxfield has since maintained a steady work pattern and on Monday had his first work over the Fair Grounds surface.

“He came out of it good and he looks good,” Walsh said Tuesday.

Maxfield always has stood over a lot of ground and, approaching the end of his 3-year-old season, has finally grown into his frame.

“Physically, this is the first time he’s looked like he’s about there,” Walsh said. “He was a big, immature horse, and we’re hoping with maturity we can put these things behind him now. They were straightforward injuries that fortunately were fixable.”

Walsh will work Maxfield twice more before deciding whether to enter in the Tenacious, a 1 1/16-mile race worth $75,000, or wait for the Louisiana Stakes over the same distance on Jan. 16.

“I think both races would be nice options coming off the bench. He’s doing great, but we’ve no big plans with him yet,” Walsh said.

If Maxfield can string together races at age 4, he could emerge as one of the leading older dirt-route horses. He won the Breeders’ Futurity by more than five lengths and his one-length margin of victory in the Matt Winn belied his superiority in that start.

“Hopefully, we can get a clear path with him to see what kind of horse he can become,” Walsh said.