Rivelli gets off to hot start with juveniles

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Larry Rivelli has the Arlington barn best stocked with 2-year-olds these days, and it was no surprise that Rivelli swept the first 2-year-old races of the meet over the Memorial Day weekend.

On Saturday, the Iqbaal gelding Echoes of Laughter won by 5 1/2 lengths at first asking, though he only earned a 51 Beyer Speed Figure. Rivelli on Tuesday said Echoes of Laughter could make his next start in the Prairie Gold Juvenile on July 20 at Prairie Meadows.

The filly O’Keeffe won Sunday by 1 1/2 lengths, earning a 67 Beyer in her debut. O’Keeffe is likely for the $100,000 My Dear Stakes on July 7 at Woodbine, Rivelli said.

The Tabulator, the Rivelli-trained 3-year-old who has won four of his five starts, including the Grade 3 Iroquois last fall at Churchill Downs and the Golden Circle Stakes at Prairie Meadows in his only start this year, blazed through a five-furlong workout in 58.20 seconds on Sunday at Arlington. The Tabulator had been aimed at the seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes on the Belmont Stakes card, but now is also being considered for the Easy Goer Stakes at Belmont, Rivelli said.

And finally, the Arlington specialist Good Bye Greg is set to rejoin Rivelli’s string at Arlington in the next few weeks, and if all goes well could race in 45 days or so, his trainer said. A 7-year-old lightly raced due to soundness issues, Good Bye Greg has compiled a 7-1-1 record from nine starts on Arlington’s Polytrack.

Downtime for Wynn Time

Wynn Time, among the best active Illinois-breds, has been turned out at a Kentucky farm and won’t race again until the autumn, trainer Hugh Robertson said.

A 4-year-old gelding by the Robertson-owned Illinois stallion Three Hour Nap, Wynn Time ran through his first, second, and third allowance conditions in consecutive races this winter at Fair Grounds before finishing second by a neck in the Hot Springs Stakes at Oaklawn and third by three-quarters of a length in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint there.

“He ran hard all fall and winter,” Robertson said. “We’re going to give him the rest of the summer off and point for the fall.”

◗ Featured on Friday’s eight-race program is race 8, a second-level one-mile turf allowance race for fillies and mares.