Pletcher says there's still time to get Forte ready for Breeders' Cup Classic

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Forte, who has not had a workout since finishing fourth in the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 26, has been battling a quarter crack, but his connections still believe there is ample time to prepare him for a start in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 4.

Noted farrier Ian McKinlay patched the quarter crack on Forte’s left front foot and the horse has been training at Churchill Downs, where he galloped Sunday morning, according to trainer Todd Pletcher.

“Just trying to get everything right before we start breezing,” Pletcher said Sunday at his Belmont Park office. “I think we’re still in position to get a couple of good breezes into him, but we got to get this in proper shape before we start doing that.”

Forte was shipped from Saratoga to Kentucky to get evaluated and “everything checked out,” Pletcher said. Pletcher has a division of horses at Churchill Downs.

In order to feel comfortable about running him in the Breeders’ Cup, Pletcher said he would like to get three breezes into Forte before the race. That would likely mean getting him back to the worktab by Oct. 14.

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“We need things to go smoothly from now on but I think we still have time to get there the right way,” Pletcher said.

Asked if there might be a chance Forte would be considered for the BC Dirt Mile, Pletcher said, “We’re focused on the Classic.”

Forte capped a championship 2-year-old season by winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland last November. His 3-year-old campaign started out smoothly enough with victories in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Forte, owned by Mike Repole and Vinnie and Teresa Viola, developed a bruise on his right front foot the week of the Kentucky Derby and he was scratched from that race - in which he was the morning-line favorite - the morning of the race. He was placed on the Kentucky veterinarian’s list, which prevented him from running in the Preakness.

Forte ran in the Belmont Stakes off a 10-week layoff and ran a respectable second behind Arcangelo. He nosed out Saudi Crown in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga before finishing fourth in the Travers, again to Arcangelo. Pletcher surmised that running in the Travers four weeks after a hard race in the Jim Dandy might have impacted Forte’s Travers performance.

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