Runhappy puts in fast five-furlong work for Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Runhappy was sent through his final workout leading into the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile when breezing five furlongs under the cover of darkness Saturday morning at Santa Anita.

Runhappy, the winner of the BC Sprint and the Eclipse Award for top sprinter last year, was timed in 58.55 seconds in a work that came at about 5:20 a.m. Pacific, before many other horses were out for exercise over a fast surface.

“Yay,” trainer Laura Wohlers said afterward. “He looked good down the stretch. It was a nice, strong work.”

According to Daily Racing Form clocker Mike Welsch, Runhappy broke off at the half-mile pole, going without urging in splits of 11.34, 22.80, and 46.19 to the wire, then proceeded to the seven-furlong pole in 58.55, with a six-furlong out time of 1:12.37. Before he got into the work, the colt was reluctant to get moving, with exercise rider Marcus O’Donnell having to prod him along with his hands and boots.

“He wasn’t too quirky,” said Wohlers, who is accustomed to the colt’s morning antics. “He eventually did what we asked of him.”

“We’re ready to rock and roll,” O’Donnell said when greeted afterward by Wohlers and her husband, Kelly.

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who has the mount for the Nov. 4 BC Dirt Mile, was on hand to watch.

Runhappy will be making just his second start of the year in the Dirt Mile. He won the Grade 1 Malibu here last December, then was laid up until Oct. 1, when he finished fourth in the one-mile Ack Ack at Churchill Downs.

Wohlers spoke at length after the Saturday work about what it has taken to get Runhappy to this point. “We’ve been on a tight schedule,” she said.

After the BC Dirt Mile, Wohlers and her brother-in-law, owner Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale, are looking to run the colt in the Nov. 25 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs as an interim prep toward the inaugural $12 million Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park. Both are 1 1/8-mile races.

Runhappy, a 4-year-old colt by Super Saver, has been one of the most celebrated racehorses in America in the last year or so. Last year, he came to prominence by sweeping the King’s Bishop, Phoenix, and BC Sprint, after which McIngvale fired trainer Maria Borell, leading to a firestorm of controversy.