Nickname sharpens for season debut in Oaklawn's Martha Washington

Two of trainer Steve Asmussen’s top 3-year-olds, the filly Nickname and the colt Gun Runner, are approaching their first races of the year.

On Wednesday morning at Fair Grounds, Nickname worked five furlongs in company with Wrath of Ruthie in 1:00.80. Nickname will make her 2016 debut Feb. 5 at Oaklawn Park in the Martha Washington Stakes.

“She worked beautifully this morning,” Asmussen said.

Nickname, a Scat Daddy filly owned by LNJ Foxwoods, won the Grade 1 Frizette in the Belmont slop and capped a four-start 2-year-old campaign by finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Wednesday’s outing was her fifth timed workout at Fair Grounds, and Asmussen said Nickname has wintered well.

“From the very first time I saw her as a yearling, she’s had a presence to her,” said Asmussen, who last weekend won the Silverbulletday Stakes with another 3-year-old filly, Stageplay.

Gun Runner, a Candy Ride colt, worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 on Monday at Fair Grounds, his third work since resuming training following a brief December freshening. Gun Runner won his career debut going one mile at Churchill; won a two-turn, first-level allowance race second out at Keeneland; and finished fourth in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes after leading briefly in the homestretch. The Kentucky Jockey Club winner, Airoforce, is preparing for his 3-year-old debut in Florida, but the race’s runner-up, Mor Spirit, returned to win the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity, and the third-place finisher, Mo Tom, won the Grade 3 Lecomte last Saturday at Fair Grounds. Second in the Lecomte was Tom’s Ready, who ran unplaced in the Kentucky Jockey Club.

“The company line out of the Kentucky Jockey Club looks excellent right now,” Asmussen said.

Gun Runner, who is talented but still immature, according to Asmussen, is on course to make his first start this season either in the Risen Star at Fair Grounds or the Rebel at Oaklawn.