Saratoga: Tiz Miz Sue to skip Personal Ensign

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Tiz Miz Sue, who has not run since winning the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont on Memorial Day, will skip the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 25, trainer Steve Hobby said Tuesday.

Tiz Miz Sue had worked three times following the Phipps, presumably toward a start in the Delaware Handicap on July 20. Hobby elected not to run her there and sent her to the farm for several weeks for a freshening. She has recently rejoined Hobby’s string at Churchill.

“She’s coming back around, but I don’t have her ready to run yet,” Hobby said Tuesday by phone from Kentucky.

Hobby said he would look to run Tiz Miz Sue in either the Beldame at Belmont or the Zenyatta at Santa Anita – both are Grade 1 races and run on Sept. 28 – en route to an engagement in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Successful Dan goes back to work

Successful Dan, runner-up in the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap, got in a workout Tuesday morning over the main track before the rains came, going a half-mile in 49.10 seconds under exercise rider Damien Rock.

Displaying a desire to do more than Rock would allow, Successful Dan got his last quarter-mile in 24.64 seconds and galloped out five furlongs in 1:02.27, three-quarters in 1:15.47, and seven-eighths in 1:29.70.

Trainer Charlie LoPresti said, “[Rock] told me he had a stranglehold on him the whole way. He wanted to do more and I didn’t want him to do more than that.”

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The move was Successful Dan’s first since his runner-up finish to Cross Traffic in the Whitney, a race in which he attempted to make a wide rally from well off a modest pace.

“If he’s not fit enough to run a mile and an eighth off that race, he’ll never be,” LoPresti said. “I can’t get him any fitter.”

Two Pletcher babies sidelined

Ari the Adventurer and Our Amazing Rose, two impressive debut-winning juvenile fillies trained by Todd Pletcher, will miss the major races in the division this fall due to infirmities.

Ari the Adventurer, who won her career bow at Belmont by 6 3/4 lengths on July 11, has been sent to her Stonestreet Farm in Kentucky for a vacation, Pletcher said. Dissatisfied with how Ari the Adventurer was training, Pletcher sent the filly to Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., for an evaluation.

“No significant findings,” Pletcher said. “She’ll stay at Stonestreet for a little holiday; probably be out four to six seeks.”

Pletcher said that Ari the Adventurer would go back in training at Stonestreet’s farm in Ocala, Fla., before rejoining him at Palm Meadows in late fall or winter.

Our Amazing Rose, who won her debut here on July 25 by 7 3/4 lengths, recently underwent colic surgery, according to Pletcher.

“All went smoothly and she recovered well,” Pletcher said. “She’ll be out a minimum of 30 days. Her next appearance will likely be at Gulfstream.”

Not many barns could afford to lose a pair of top-notch fillies like that, but Pletcher’s roster is extremely deep.

Pletcher still has a trio of horses pointing to the Grade 1 Spinaway, including Stopchargingmaria, Elena Strikes, and Sweet Whiskey. Sweet Whiskey won her debut here on Sunday by 5 1/4 lengths, earning an 86 Beyer Speed Figure in the process.

“We sort of anticipated that she was the kind that would go over and run well first time out,” Pletcher said. “We had a pretty good barometer from some of the other fillies that she trains with. She pretty much delivered the kind of performance we were expecting. We’ll have to give the Spinaway serious consideration.”