Rain puts damper on Whitney works

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher’s decision to move Palace Malice’s final Whitney workout from Sunday to Saturday proved prescient, as heavy rains left the track wet Sunday and Monday.

It rained so hard early Monday morning – turning the Oklahoma training track into a sloppy mess – that trainer D. Wayne Lukas postponed a scheduled Monday breeze for last year’s 3-year-old champion, Will Take Charge. Tom Albertrani, the trainer of beaten Suburban favorite Romansh, also scrapped a scheduled workout. Both are expected for the Whitney, to be run Saturday.

Lukas said he was hoping to give Will Take Charge a three-eighths blowout Tuesday, while Albertrani said he wasn’t planning to do much with Romansh, so he could work as late as Wednesday.

In addition to those three, others considered definite for the Whitney are Departing, Itsmyluckyday, Moreno, and Prayer for Relief. Trainer Chad Brown is considering running either Suburban winner Zivo or Last Gunfighter, or both. Both horses arrived at Saratoga on Sunday following workouts at Belmont Park on Saturday.