Send It In staying put

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Following Send It In’s victory in Saturday’s Alex M. Robb Stakes, owner Paul Pompa Jr. mentioned the possibility of shipping the horse to south Florida for either the $12 million Pegasus or the $400,000 Poseidon, both Jan. 28 at Gulfstream Park.

On Monday, however, Pompa said Send It In will stay in New York for the time being.

Pompa said Monday that “if somebody makes me an offer that’s good for us,” he would consider running Send It In in the Pegasus. Otherwise, Pompa said, “We have a couple of nice spots coming up for him in New York.”

Pompa was referring to the $100,000 Haynesfield for New York-breds at Aqueduct on Feb. 11 and the $150,000 Stymie, also at Aqueduct, on March 12.

Send It In, trained by Todd Pletcher, won for the sixth time in his last eight starts in the Robb, stalking a decent pace before taking control in upper stretch. He earned a 96 Beyer Speed Figure for the Robb, a race run over a fairly slow racetrack.

“This horse, he’s done nothing wrong,” Pompa said. “He keeps stepping up in class and keeps winning.”

Pompa has a good number of older males for 2017. Obviously, his top older male is Connect, who won the Grade 1 Cigar Mile and is in light training at Palm Meadows with Chad Brown. Pompa said the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on June 10 is the first major target of the year for Connect.

Pompa has Tommy Macho pointing to the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 14. Rally Cry, unraced since a third in the Easy Goer Stakes in June, is also working his way back to the races.