Takaful, Highway Star head busy Belmont work tab

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Graded stakes winners Takaful and Highway Star topped a busy work tab Thursday morning at Belmont Park where 185 horses put in timed workouts over a fast training track.

Takaful, winner of the Grade 1 Vosburgh on Sept. 30 at Belmont, worked a half-mile in 49.16 seconds, zipping along early and taken in hand late. It is unclear where he will make his next start, though trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has previously mentioned the Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan, a seven-furlong race here Jan. 27, as a potential spot. Takaful is nominated to the $100,000 Fire Plug, a six-furlong race Jan. 20 at Laurel Park.

McLaughlin would like to get the horse a prep before possibly shipping him to Dubai for the $2 million Golden Shaheen on March 31 at Meydan.

Highway Star, a multiple open-company stakes-winning New York-bred mare, worked three furlongs in 38.02. It was her first work since finishing second in the Grade 3 Go for Wand on Dec. 2 at Aqueduct.

Trainer Rodrigo Ubillo said the Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie on Feb. 17 at Laurel “is on the radar,” but he was far from committing to the race.

“It’s not a hundred percent,” Ubillo said. “I go by the horse. When she’s ready, we’ll run.”

Another horse of note on the work tab was the 3-year-old Marconi, who went a half-mile in 50.72 in company with fellow 3-year-old Blewitt, who did gallop out stronger of the two. Marconi, a recent maiden winner here going 1 1/8 miles, is being pointed to the Grade 3, $250,000 Withers Stakes, also at 1 1/8 miles, on Feb. 3.