Saudi Cup will be next start for Max Player, Asmussen says
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Max Player got the invitation his connections desired and will make his next start Feb. 20 in the $20 million Saudi Cup, trainer Steve Asmussen said Sunday.
Max Player will travel Feb. 8 along with stablemate Cowan, who will start in the Saudi Derby on the Saudi Cup undercard. Both horses, if they do well in Saudi Arabia, could go on to Dubai for races there on the Dubai World Cup card March 27.
Max Player finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Oct. 3 Preakness, his most recent start. His last win came Feb. 1, 2020, when he captured the Withers Stakes. Cowan finished a distant second behind Caddo River in the Smarty Jones Stakes on Jan. 22 at Oaklawn.
Meanwhile, Yaupon worked an easy half-mile Sunday at Fair Grounds, his second work following a post-Breeders’ Cup freshening. Yaupon won his first four starts and, after easy wins in the Amsterdam and the Chick Lang, was favored in the BC Sprint but could finish only eighth.
“Mind boggling,” Asmussen said. “Still can’t believe how bad he ran. We’ll try to set him up for a great 4-year-old year.”
Asmussen said he’d like to get one prep race into Yaupon in advance of the $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint on April 10 at Oaklawn.
Also working steadily at Fair Grounds is 3-year-old colt Cazadero, winner of the Bashford Manor at Churchill last summer before finishing fifth as the favorite Aug. 7 in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special.
“He’s grown a lot and I think he’s got a chance to stretch out this year,” Asmussen said. “We’ll add to his training and try to find the right spot.”
*** A nine-race Wednesday card has just one allowance race, the 7th, a first-level, filly-and-mare dirt route with a $17,500 claiming option. Pop a Choc, with Adam Beschizza named to ride for trainer Mark Casse, looks like the favorite, perhaps a vulnerable one. Pop a Choc hasn’t started since late September, when she was dirt sprinting in New York, and her only two-turn races, turf miles last spring in Florida, yielded modest results.