Practical Joke gears up for Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

ELMONT, N.Y. – Practical Joke, a three-time Grade 1 winner, worked four furlongs in 48.45 seconds Saturday morning over the Belmont Park main track as he continues preparations for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Nov. 3 at Del Mar.

Practical Joke worked in company with the 2-year-old maiden winner Engage, and the pair got their last three furlongs in 35.55 seconds and galloped out an additional eighth of a mile in 12.65. Engage is scheduled to run in the Grade 3, $150,000 Futurity here next Saturday.

After running three times in seven weeks, Practical Joke will come into the Breeders’ Cup off a 69-day break.

“He’s training great. I think freshening him up has turned out to be the right thing to do,” trainer Chad Brown said. “I think the horse is so strong in his works, keeping his fitness well. I’m looking forward to getting to the Breeders’ Cup. I think he’s going to run just fine off a break.”

Brown also worked Paulassilverlining and Carina Mia, his two contenders for the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint. Paulassilverlining, working with the 2-year-old Mask, went a half-mile in 48.03. Carina Mia, working by herself, went a half-mile in 49.19.

For Paulassilverlining, it was her fifth work since her fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 26. She had been under consideration for the Gallant Bloom before it was decided to trainer her up to the Breeders’ Cup.

Brown said Paulassilverlining’s performance in the Ballerina may have been impacted by the hard effort needed to win the Honorable Miss four weeks earlier.

“She ran so well in the Honorable Miss, maybe it took a little out of her,” Brown said. “We took the approach bringing her to the Breeders’ Cup fresh, and hopefully she gives us one of her A-plus performances off a freshening.”

For Carina Mia, it was her first breeze since her runner-up finish in the Gallant Bloom.

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