Pletcher still mulling plans for undefeated import

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Sunday was a regularly scheduled dark day on the Oklahoma turf course until trainer Todd Pletcher received special permission to work a team on the grass. The multiple graded-stakes placed Stainless and the undefeated 3-year-old filly Cascanueces, who has yet to run in this country, went five furlongs inside the dogs, with Stainless coming out a couple of lengths best.

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Cascanueces has never raced on grass, and won three dirt starts in Peru – including a pair of Group 1 stakes – as a 2-year-old. She was scratched from the Grade 3 Delware Oaks on July 7 after coming up with “a little infection in her hind leg,” Pletcher said, noting that he thought about running the filly in the Grade 3 Lake George Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race, on opening day at Saratoga.

“She’s by Smart Strike and we thought there might be some turf there, but based on today’s work we’ll probably consider some other options,” he said. “She’s a little tricky to place, being she’s a North American-bred 3-year-old who’s 3 for 3 in Peru and doesn’t have a lot of conditions left.”