Top turf horse Domestic Spending returns to work tab
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Domestic Spending, the multiple Grade 1 winner who was scratched from last November’s Breeders’ Cup Turf with a suspensory issue, had his first work in exactly 10 months Monday, going three furlongs in 39.04 seconds over the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga.
It was Domestic Spending’s first work since last Oct. 29 at Belmont Park when he had a final move before shipping to Southern California, where he was the favorite for the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but scratched two days before the race due to a suspensory ligament issue.
Domestic Spending was out of training for several months before joining Brown at Payson Park during late winter. He moved to Saratoga in May, but had to be sent back to the farm for a month.
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“He came in, went home, and came back,” Brown said. “He needed to go get checked out for something I didn’t like unrelated to his previous injury and he needed another month.”
Brown said he has no plan for Domestic Spending “other than breeze him weekly and see where he takes us,” he said. “So far, so good.”
Domestic Spending, a 5-year-old gelding by Kingman owned by Seth Klarman, has won six of eight career starts. He reeled off three consecutive Grade 1 victories starting with the 2020 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar, and included in 2021 the Turf Classic at Churchill Downs, where he dead-heated with Colonel Liam, and the Manhattan at Belmont Park. His last race came in the 2021 Mr. D. (formerly Arlington Million), where he was beaten a neck by Two Emmys.
Meanwhile, Brown has outlined plans for many of his older female turf horses. Technical Analysis, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Ballston Spa, In Italian, the Grade 1 Diana winner, and Regal Glory, the Grade 1 Fourstardave runner-up, are all possible for the Grade1, $750,000 First Lady at Keeneland on Oct. 8..
Rougir, last-place finisher in the Beverly D. at Churchill on Aug. 13,, and Fluffy Socks, the Ballston Spa runner-up, are likely for the Grade 1, $750,000 E.P. Taylor at Woodbine on Oct. 8.
Bleecker Street, as DRF reported a few weeks ago is injured and definitely won’t run again this year. Bleecker Street, who won her first seven career starts, including the Grade 1 New York, finished third in the Grade 1 Diana.
Brown said he plans to enter three for Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Flower Bowl, including Virginia Joy, third in the Glens Falls; Capital Structure, recent winner of a Saratoga allowance race; and Marvelous Maude, who scratched out of last Friday’s Yaddo Handicap when that race was rained off the turf.
Brown said all three are not definite to run and will make that decision after entries come out. The Flower Bowl field is expected to be headed by last year’s winner War Like Goddess. Coastana, Flanigan’s Cove, and Temple City Terror are all under consideration.