Serengeti Empress breezes for Acorn

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Serengeti Empress and her trainer, Tom Amoss, appear to be relishing a little less training pressure a couple of weeks after her front-running triumph in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks.

Friday, she took an effortless but speedy half-mile spin at Churchill Downs, breezing the distance in 48 seconds. It was her first workout since the Oaks and served as preparation for the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont Park June 8. Churchill clocker John Nichols timed her final eighth of a mile in 11.60 seconds on her way to galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.80 and three quarters in 1:14.

“We can be more relaxed in her training,” Amoss said. “Leading into the Kentucky Oaks, we felt like we had to catch up.”

Amoss is also more at ease than a month ago, when he decided to put Serengeti Empress through a couple of rigorous breezes to feel she had properly recovered from having bled from her lungs in the March 23 Fair Grounds Oaks. Among those was an in-company move April 23, in which she reeled in her target, working five furlongs in a morning-best 58.20 seconds.

Even following that workout, Amoss was apprehensive about running her in the Kentucky Oaks, wishing to give her the chance to participate in the nation’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies but also fearful of a recurrence of bleeding. Her health came first.

Pressure beyond that he placed on himself mounted further Oaks week. He said he was contacted the Monday before the race by Mike Ziegler, executive director of racing for Churchill Downs Inc., who notified him his company had received an email from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that questioned her participation.

“I didn’t sleep well for four days,” Amoss said.

His fears now allayed, he can savor her Oaks victory and look forward to what lies ahead.

“I’ve won some big races, but nothing like this,” he said. “It’s so cool. I’ll probably never get to experience anything like that again in my life.”

Before Serengeti Empress races in the Acorn, where a rematch is on with Oaks second finisher Liora, he has Lone Sailor primed for a trip to California for the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita. A millionaire who won the Oklahoma Derby in 2018, Lone Sailor has steadily improved in three starts at age 4. Most recently, he finished a closing second to Quip in the Oaklawn Handicap April 13.

“I felt all along his 4-year-old year was going to be better than his 3-year-old year,” Amoss said.