Quick work puts Beren's next start up in the air

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Butch Reid Jr. would love to run his red-hot 3-year-old Beren next Friday in the 1 1/8-mile Curlin at Saratoga. But after Beren worked four furlongs in a blistering 46.78 seconds here just before the renovation break on Friday, Reid is having second thoughts.

“His work this morning was too good, too fast,” Reid said. “I really wanted him to go like he did last time, easy, in 48 and change, which is why I didn’t put a jock on him. It just doesn’t feel right to send him a mile and one-eighth in one week off a work like this.”

Beren, a winner of five of his last six starts, has been nominated to all three 3-year-old stakes here next week, the Curlin, the 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy on Saturday, and the 6 1/2-furlong Amsterdam next Sunday.

“I’d love to keep him around two turns, but if it looks like the two extra days to the Amsterdam is what he needs, we’ll go there instead of the Curlin,” Reid said. “We’ll just let him tell us as the week goes along.”

About a half-hour before working Beren, Reid sent out reigning juvenile filly champ Vequist to breeze a half-mile in 47.92, just her second work since going to the sidelines following her ninth-place finish in the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park in February.