Oscar Performance to Arlington Million

ELMONT, N.Y. – Stablemates Oscar Performance and Heart to Heart will both be in action on Aug. 11, but it won’t be in the same race.

Though trainer Brian Lynch initially said he would concentrate on one-mile races for Oscar Performance this year, he is pointing the recent Grade 3 Poker Stakes winner to the Grade 1 Arlington Million at 1 1/4 miles at Arlington Park on Aug. 11.

Heart to Heart remains on schedule for the Grade 1, $500,000 Fourstardave at Saratoga the same day.

Lynch said he would like to keep Oscar Performance and Heart to Heart separated until the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in November.

At 3, Oscar Performance won both the Belmont Derby and Secretariat at 1 1/4 miles. In his first start at 4, Oscar Performance won the Poker by 1 1/2 lengths and equaled a North American record by running a mile in 1:31.23.

“If he’s as good as we’re hoping he is right now, for his stallion career and everything, the Arlington Million is a very prestigious race to have on his résumé if you were lucky enough to win something like that,” Lynch said of Oscar Performance.

On Sunday, both Oscar Performance and Heart to Heart worked over the Belmont Park turf course. Oscar Performance, in his first breeze since the Poker, went a half-mile in 48.84 seconds. Heart to Heart, in his first breeze since getting beat a neck in the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita on May 27, went a half-mile in 49.31 seconds.

“Heart to Heart, we let him down after the Shoemaker and he came back and had a nice, easy half,” Lynch said. “He’ll keep moving forward off those works. Oscar was very eager to get back on the work tab, worked strong. He’s come out of his race very well.”