Santa Anita: Private Zone smokes a half-mile for Breeders' Cup Sprint

ARCADIA, Calif. – Private Zone needed only 45.80 seconds to complete a solo half-mile workout at Santa Anita on Thursday, preparing for the $1.5 million Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Nov. 2.

Fifteen minutes after the workout, jockey Martin Pedroza was still feeling the effects.

“I’m still tired from working him,” Pedroza said, seated on the concrete steps of the Santa Anita grandstand.

Owned by Good Friends Stable, Private Zone approaches the BC Sprint after winning the Grade 1 Vosburgh Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 28, his second stakes win. He won the Pirate’s Bounty Stakes at Del Mar on Sept. 4.

“He seems to be getting better,” Pedroza said. “He’ll have to be at his best, and I think he will be.”

Trained by Doug O’Neill, Private Zone has won 5 of 19 starts and earned $513,820. The two-race winning streak was preceded by a five-month layoff, which followed a ninth in the $2 million Golden Shaheen for sprinters in Dubai on March 30.

“He’s coming back gangbusters,” O’Neill said. “I love how he’s doing for the biggest race of his life.”

Private Zone worked alone, although O’Neill said the 4-year-old might have been trying to catch a horse that started several lengths in front. O’Neill said the workout was well within Private Zone’s ability.

“If you get beat you look back, but he worked so easily,” he said.