Mitole to cut back to sprint in Vanderbilt Handicap

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Mitole, a winner of seven consecutive races, including the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 8, has been confirmed for the Grade 1, $350,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga on July 27, trainer Steve Asmussen said Thursday.

“I love how he’s doing. I feel the Vanderbilt is a good spot for him,” Asmussen said.

The Vanderbilt is run at six furlongs, the distance at which Mitole made the first nine starts of his career, winning six of them, including two listed at stakes at age 3 and the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn last winter.

In his two most recent starts, Mitole won the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes at seven furlongs and the Grade 1 Met Mile, where he beat McKinzie and Coal Front, two top older males.

Mitole has worked twice at Saratoga, including a five-furlong drill in 1:01.85 on Monday.

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Break Even to try turf

Break Even is undefeated in five career starts, all on dirt. But trainer Brad Cox believes the horse has the pedigree to handle turf and plans to give her a chance to prove it in Sunday’s $100,000 Coronation Cup going 5 1/2 furlongs at Saratoga.

Break Even is a daughter of Country Day out of the Saint Ballado mare Exotic Wager. She was entered for turf in her debut on New Year’s Day at Fair Grounds, but that race came off the turf, and she rolled to a five-length victory in the slop.

Cox kept Break Even on the dirt, and she won an allowance race, the Purple Mountain Stakes at Oaklawn, the Grade 2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs and, most recently, the Grade 3 Jersey Girl at Belmont Park on June 9.

“With her pedigree, I think she’ll take to the grass,” Cox said Thursday by phone from Kentucky. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that she will.”

Following the Jersey Girl, Cox said he was pointing Break Even to the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 3. Cox did not discount using this race as a stepping-stone to the Test or perhaps the Prioress later in the meet.

Nine were entered in the Coronation Cup, but one of them was Abyssinian, who was scheduled to run in Thursday’s $100,000 Quick Call Stakes. Trainer Wesley Ward was planning to run Thursday provided the race stayed on the turf.