Saratoga: Dance to Bristol eyeing Gallant Bloom

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While Dance to Bristol earned an expenses-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint by winning Friday’s Grade 1 Ballerina, her connections are playing it one race at a time before committing to running.

On Saturday, trainer Ollie Figgins III said Dance to Bristol came out of her head victory over Book Review “great. Right in her feed tub, cleaned up everything today, and I couldn’t be happier with her right now.”

On Sunday, Figgins was planning to ship Dance to Bristol back to Bowie, a former racetrack that is now a training center in Anne Arundel County, Md.

Figgins said if the decision is made to run in the Breeders’ Cup, then Dance to Bristol would have one more prep, most likely in the Grade 2, $200,000 Gallant Bloom at Belmont Park on Sept. 21.

“That’s good timing,” Figgins said. “If we were to go to California, that would give her plenty of time before the Breeders’ Cup.”

The Ballerina was the first Grade 1 victory for Dance to Bristol and her seventh consecutive win this year. Earlier this meet, she also won the Grade 2 Honorable Miss.

“I thought if she could win these two races that’s got to put her in Eclipse Award mention, I would say,” Figgins said.

Meanwhile, Judy the Beauty, who was scratched from the Ballerina after flipping in the gate prior to the start, appeared to escape the incident unscathed, according to trainer Wesley Ward. Judy the Beauty knocked out a tooth.

“I cannot remember in the thousands of horses I’ve run, the last one that flipped in the starting gate,” Ward said. “I never had her better in her life than yesterday.”

On Saturday, Judy the Beauty, accompanied by a pony, went back to the track and “almost got loose from the pony,” Ward said.

Ward said that he would like to point Judy the Beauty to the Grade 2, $400,000 Presque Isle Downs Master on Sept. 9.