Turf runners train for weekend stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The turf course was open for training and attracted eight workers on Tuesday morning. Many of them are expected to run on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks and Saturday’s Kentucky Derby undercards.

Trainer Wesley Ward sent out a threesome that included Grade 1-placed Emotional Kitten and Grade 2 winner Shrinking Violet. Emotional Kitten, who exits a sixth-place finish in her 2015 debut, broke off three lengths behind her targets and finished well down the center of the course. Emotional Kitten got within a head of Shrinking Violet at the wire before Shrinking Violet edged clear again on the gallop-out.

“I think from the work this morning, it looks like she’s back,” Ward said of Emotional Kitten.

Ward said he wasn’t sure where Emotional Kitten would run, but among the possibilities is Saturday’s Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile.

Channing Hill was aboard Emotional Kitten, while Florent Geroux worked Shrinking Violet.

Perhaps the most impressive turf work of the morning was turned in by Chocolate Ride, who breezed a half-mile in 48.43 seconds and galloped out five-eighths in 1:02.04. He strode out nicely at the finish without the need of urging, getting his final quarter in 23 and change. Chocolate Ride will bring a three-race win streak into Saturday’s Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, including a half-length triumph in Fair Grounds’s Grade 2 Mervin Muniz Jr. Handicap on March 28.

Golden Soul also was sharp over the firm turf course, going five furlongs in 1:00.23. He responded to vigorous urging to finish well through the final furlong before galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.34. Golden Soul, the runner-up in the 2013 Kentucky Derby, has made six of his last seven starts on grass.

Thirty minutes earlier, over a fast main track, three-time Grade 1 winner Sweet Reason blew out three furlongs in 35.15 for Saturday’s Grade 1 Humana Distaff. Trainer Leah Gyarmati, watching the drill from the clocker’s stand on the fourth floor of the grandstand, asked her rider to “pick it up” at midstretch via walkie-talkie, and Sweet Reason responded with a nice burst of speed. Sweet Reason was then allowed to ease up a bit, per instructions from Gyarmati, shortly past the wire, galloping out a half-mile in 48.82.

“She really seems to like it here,” said Gyarmati.