Thursday drill keeps Wicked Strong on edge
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It may be more for him than the horse, but trainer Jimmy Jerkens likes to do a little more with a horse than simply gallop him two days out from a race.
So, despite miserable conditions Thursday morning at Saratoga, Jerkens had Jim Dandy Stakes winner Wicked Strong blow out three furlongs in 38.69 seconds over a sloppy Oklahoma training track in preparation for Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers Stakes.
Heavy rains pelted Saratoga on Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, creating sloppy surfaces over both the main and training tracks. Initially, Jerkens scrapped a plan to work Wicked Strong but ultimately changed his mind and sent him to the track at 9:45 a.m., when it was very quiet.
Under exercise rider Kelvin Pahal, Wicked Strong, wearing blinkers and a shadow roll, galloped one mile from the quarter pole to the quarter pole before breaking off to work. Wicked Strong went from the quarter pole to the wire in 25.48 seconds and an additional eighth in 13.21.
“I’ve had so much luck doing something with him a couple of days before,” Jerkens said. “I didn’t think there was much risk in going that short a distance. He’s been a sound horse. It wasn’t like we were trying to protect something. There’s always a risk, but I always felt the Oklahoma mud was the safest of any.”
Jerkens said he believes working a horse a short distance close to a race helps it keep fit.
“You got a horse that’s doing good and eating good – that’s great, you always want that – but I always thought they need to have continuous work to keep fit,” he said. “He had a good work on Saturday, but it was on a lightning, lightning, lightning-fast track, so I don’t know how much he got out of that.”
Last Saturday, Wicked Strong worked six furlongs in 1:13.05 over the main track.
On Thursday, Haskell Invitational winner and Travers morning-line favorite Bayern jogged once around the sloppy main track. Assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes said the weather and track condition made it easy to decide to give Bayern a light day of training following his arrival from Southern California on Thursday.
Though the weather was miserable Thursday and rain could linger into early Friday, the forecast for Saturday is for dry conditions with sunshine and highs in the upper 70s.