Toner rolls with the ups and downs

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There is little time for a horse trainer to lament about yesterday. One has to remain on the move, focused on today and tomorrow.

Such was life for Jimmy Toner on Saturday morning. About 24 1/2 hours after watching his older graded stakes-winning mare Recepta get vanned off the Saratoga main track with a career-ending injury, Toner watched his other turf stakes star Time and Motion breeze for her next engagement in the Grade 2, $300,000 Lake Placid Stakes on Aug. 21.

Toner was able to smile after Time and Motion worked five furlongs in 1:01.97 over the Oklahoma turf course. Under John Velazquez, Time and Motion went her first three furlongs in 38.42 seconds and then came home in 23.55.

“He was just sitting on her,” Toner said, referring to Velazquez. “The dogs” – cones – “were so close, she was looking at the dogs. But she went off in 13 (-second eighths) and finished up really good.”

Toner was certainly in a better frame of mind than Friday morning when Recepta, a Grade 3 winner who was beaten a nose in the Grade 1 Diana, was diagnosed with a fractured pelvis, suffered while simply galloping over the main track. Recepta will remain at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Saratoga Springs for at least a month.

“It’s hard, you got to focus on today and tomorrow,” Toner said. “This morning they called me already, she’s doing fine. They have her on fluids and she’s stable. She’s putting weight on her leg, which is encouraging.”

Toner said Recepta basically has to remain on her feet while the fracture heals.

“I do think she’s smart enough and intelligent enough to be able to handle everything,” Toner said. “The next 30 days are so critical. It’s so hard to have to stand for 30 days; you can’t do anything but monitor everything.”

Time and Motion won three consecutive races includng two stakes before being defeated a half-length by Catch a Glimpse in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks.

Coincidentally, Catch a Glimpse breezed over the Oklahoma turf course a few minutes before Time and Motion. Catch a Glimpse, with Florent Geroux up, went five furlongs in 1:00.32, getting her final quarter in 23.32 seconds.

Catch a Glimpse has won eight consecutive races – seven stakes – for trainer Mark Casse, who also trains Tepin, the champion female turf horse of 2015 who has won seven straight.

“Tepin goes along nice but this filly amazes me. She just skips,” Casse said. “She came home in 23-and-1. I could see her drop her head a little bit. She’s ready.”