Tax has first work back from short break

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tax, the 2019 Jim Dandy winner, worked three furlongs in 36.63 seconds Sunday morning over the Saratoga main track, his first breeze since he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap on May 2.

Trainer Danny Gargan said he does not have any plans for Tax, but said he would most likely not be ready to run at this meet.

“He’s only been back a little while,” Gargan said. “We’ll look at Keeneland in the fall.”

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Gargan said Tax was turned out at Patty Hogan’s farm in central New Jersey following the Oaklawn Handicap.

“He’d been in training since he was 2 all the way through a rough 3-year-old campaign,” Gargan said of Tax, an Arch gelding. “He’s bigger and stronger and he’s filled out. Before he was tall and big, but he’d always get a little ribby. We want to keep him around for a long time, so we plan to turn him out every year for a few months. We’d like to see him until he’s 6 or 7.”

After winning the Jim Dandy, Tax finished seventh in the Travers, second in the Grade 3 Discovery, and was ninth in the Pegasus Invitational on Jan. 25 at Gulfstream Park. In the Oaklawn Handicap, he finished fifth, 6 3/4 lengths behind winner By My Standards.