Mind Control, Tax drill for upcoming stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Mind Control and Tax, the two leading 3-year-olds based on the New York circuit this winter, both put in workouts Saturday morning at Belmont Park in preparation for upcoming stakes engagements.

The two worked moments apart on the training track following the 9 a.m. renovation break.

Tax, in his first workout since winning the Grade 3 Withers on Feb. 2, worked an easy half-mile in 51.24 seconds by himself. He went his first quarter in 25.83 seconds, his second quarter in 25.41, and galloped out five furlongs in 1:04.91. Tax, trained by Danny Gargan, is pointing to the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 6.

“I wasn’t looking for anything special today,” Gargan said. “As it goes further on we’ll put somebody in front of him, wake him up. I’m not really a super-fast work trainer. I just wanted to let him do something – he’s getting real rambunctious and happy. Just wanted to let him go out there and enjoy himself.”

:: DERBY WATCH: Top 20 Kentucky Derby contenders with comments from Jay Privman and Mike Watchmaker

Tax won the Withers by a head over Not That Brady and earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Prior to that, last Dec. 1, he finished third to Maximus Mischief in the Grade 2 Remsen, which, like the Withers and the Wood, is run at 1 1/8-miles over Aqueduct’s main track.

“I think the mile and an eighth is his cup of tea, we’re going to keep him at it. Actually, the farther he goes the better I think he’s going to get,” Gargan said.

Tax will have time to get five more works in before the Wood.

As Tax was finishing his work, Mind Control winner of the Jerome on New Year’s Day and the Grade 1 Hopeful last summer at Saratoga, broke off into a five-furlong work he did in company with the unraced 3-year-old Powerfully Built. Mind Control, working inside, went five furlongs in 1:00.53, getting his last quarter in 24.64 seconds, pulling away by two lengths over his workmate. He is preparing for a start in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes here on March 9.

“They hit it right on the head, we weren’t looking for anything out of the ordinary,” trainer Gregg Sacco said. “After a quarter-mile he picked it up every eighth. I was happy the way he finished up and galloped out.”

Mind Control will have one more work out before the Gotham, Sacco said.

The Sacco-trained Joevia, beaten a neck by Haikal when second in the Jimmy Winkfield on Feb. 9., worked a half-mile in 49.91 seconds. Sacco said the Gotham is an option for Joevia “but we’re looking at other options that might give him better spacing,” he added.