Secret Circle back in training
DEL MAR, Calif. – Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner, Secret Circle, hasn’t been seen since the spring, but he is back in training at Los Alamitos, and trainer Bob Baffert said a defense of his Sprint title is the goal.
Secret Circle has raced just once since last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint; he was second in the Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita in February. He was scheduled to run in the Count Fleet Stakes in April at Oaklawn Park but had to be withdrawn after mistakenly being tranquilized for his flight there just days before the race.
“I got him back home, but there was no place I wanted to run, and I didn’t want to bring him down here,” Baffert said. “So, I want to do it like last year, have one run and then go into the Breeders’ Cup. I want him to come back super fresh.”
Secret Circle returned from an 18-month layoff last year to win an optional claimer prior to his Breeders’ Cup Sprint win.
◗ Corey Nakatani has picked up the mount on Candy Boy in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 2, according to his agent, Tony Matos. Candy Boy was second to Shared Belief in the Los Alamitos Derby in his last start July 5.