Outfielder likely to stretch out
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The 2-year-old colt Outfielder passed his dirt test with a two-length allowance win going six furlongs Saturday at Keeneland. He is likely to now get a route test.
“As big as he is, we’re thinking about stretching him out,” trainer Wesley Ward said.
Ward ran Outfielder on turf early because of his size, believing the surface would be easier on him at that point in his development. The colt ran creditably, winning his debut in May at Churchill Downs and finishing fourth in the Group 1 Prix Morny, a tough assignment, in August in France.
Still, Ward knew there was more there.
“When we started working him in April, we were working him with Schwarzenegger,” Ward said, referencing the colt who won Sunday’s Indian Summer Stakes sprinting on the Keeneland turf. “And he was just sitting behind [Schwarzenegger] and running by him until we found out that the grass was going to be the right surface for Schwarzenegger.”