Secret Circle preparing for late-summer return

ARCADIA, Calif. – Secret Circle, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last November, is in light training at Los Alamitos in preparation for a late-summer and fall campaign.

Trainer Bob Baffert said Secret Circle could start at the Del Mar summer meeting, which runs from July 17 to Sept. 3, but that the main goal is the BC Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 1.

Secret Circle has started once this year, finishing second in the Grade 2 Palos Verdes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 2. He was scratched from the Count Fleet Sprint at Oaklawn Park in April after being given a tranquilizer on a horse charter to Arkansas.

Secret Circle has not had a workout since April 12.

“I’ll shoot for the fall,” Baffert said. “He could run at Del Mar at the end. We know he only needs one prep to be ready to run his best.”

Last October, Secret Circle won an optional claimer for sprinters, his first start after an 18-month layoff, before winning the BC Sprint. Owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, Secret Circle, 5, has won 7 of 10 starts and earned $1,918,790. A five-time stakes winner, Secret Circle has never finished worse than second.