Turf stakes might be next for Lea

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A three-time stakes winner on dirt, including in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap in 2014, Lea could be headed back to the turf for his next start.

Lea, in his first breeze since finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 8, worked four furlongs in 50.22 seconds Monday over the Oklahoma turf course. He worked in company with Mosler, starting two lengths in front of that horse and holding him off by a neck at the wire and through the gallop-out.

Lea went his first quarter in 26.47 seconds and his second quarter in 23.75.

“I thought he went well,” trainer Bill Mott said. “Weighing all of our options right at the moment.”

Those options could include turf in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga on Sept. 7 or the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile on Sept. 13, when he likely would face Wise Dan. Lea has not raced on turf since finishing third to Wise Dan in the Grade 2 Fourstardave here in 2013.

Lea won the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope on dirt to start his year and finished second to Constitution in the Donn, third in the Dubai World Cup, and second, beaten a neck by Noble Bird, in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster. In the Whitney, he was never in contention.

“It didn’t look like he liked the racetrack to me,” Mott said.

Among the plethora of workers for Mott on Monday was Tourist, who has not run since finishing 13th in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Mile. Before that, he had run second in the Grade 1 Secretariat. Tourist went a half-mile in 51.21 seconds over the Oklahoma dirt surface.

Tourist was scheduled to run July 29 but got sick. Monday’s work was his second breeze back.