Runhappy breezes six furlongs ahead of Ack Ack

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Runhappy took a major step toward his eagerly awaited return to action when breezing six furlongs in 1:14.40 on Thursday over a fast track at Churchill Downs, the site of his next scheduled start.

With regular rider Edgar Prado in from Maryland, Runhappy was breezing for the fourth time since recovering from a couple of physical setbacks that have precluded the 2015 sprint champion from racing since December. The colt will breeze once more, most likely at Keeneland, before making his comeback here Oct. 1 in the Grade 3, $100,000 Ack Ack at one mile.

Prado said Runhappy felt very comfortable and relaxed under him while going in splits of 26 seconds, 37.80, 49.40, and 1:01.80. The work started out of the six-stall starting gate stationed at the top of the stretch at the quarter pole and was timed by Churchill clocker John Nichols over to the half-mile pole.

“We know he’s fast, so I wanted him to finish strong, and he did,” said Prado. “He galloped out very strong. I think he got what he needed.”

Laura Wohlers, who trains Runhappy at the Thoroughbred Center training facility in Lexington, Ky., for her brother-in-law, owner Jim McIngvale, was accompanied to Louisville by about a half-dozen staff members. Wohlers wanted Runhappy to get a feel for the track before the Ack Ack.

“I was very happy with him,” she said. “He was nice and relaxed, and that’s the key. He’s a pretty cool horse.”

Runhappy will use the Ack Ack as his lone prep toward the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Nov. 4. Last fall at Keeneland, Runhappy won the BC Sprint as a 3-year-old in wrapping up the Eclipse Award for top sprinter.

He raced one more time in 2015, winning the Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita on Dec. 26, and was supposed to return to racing this spring, but his comeback was delayed initially by a foot bruise and then by a diagnosis of cannon-bone bruising. He returned to training in early August and was sent through three official works at Keeneland before this latest work at Churchill.

“He’s really good now,” said Wohlers. “We gave him all the time he needed and let him grow up a little bit.”

McIngvale has said he hopes to race Runhappy next year as a 5-year-old, starting with the inaugural running of the $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.

Runhappy, a colt by Super Saver, has won seven of eight starts and earned $1,481,300. He was trained through the Oct. 31 BC Sprint by Maria Borell, who was fired the following day. Borell subsequently has encountered legal trouble for allegedly having a role in a disturbing case of neglected horses on a Kentucky farm.