Stay Put still on course for Risen Star

Stay Put, 2 for 2 at the Fair Grounds meet and a leading candidate for the Risen Star Stakes later this month, has not posted a timed workout since Feb. 1, but trainer Steve Margolis said that "everything is going great" with the 3-year-old Broken Vow colt.

"I'm not a have-to-work-every-seven-days kind of guy," Margolis said Tuesday, noting that Stay Put was scheduled to work three-quarters Thursday with rider Jamie Theriot, "and that should set him up pretty well for the Risen Star."

"He's a fit horse," he said. "We just want to put some air in him, so we'll let him work the three-quarters and gallop out."

Stay Put, a Klein family homebred, has made four starts, all around two turns, since debuting in September at Turfway Park. On Dec. 7, he won his maiden in an off-the-turf race at Fair Grounds, and he rallied from last of 10 behind a slow pace on his way to victory in an entry-level allowance race on Jan. 3. Margolis said a few days after that win that Stay Put would sit out the Lecomte Stakes in January and await the Risen Star.

Another Margolis stakes horse, Cash Refund, worked an easy half-mile in 50.80 on Sunday, his first breeze since he out-sprinted Euroears and won the Gaudin Stakes on Jan. 23. Cash Refund's brilliant speed, though, is on display only during actual races.

"He hardly picks his feet up when he trains," Margolis said. "He has just kind of a shuffling stride. His half-brother Early Return is the same way. He's really doing good, though, holding his weight well."