Two Emmys should improve in next starts at Fair Grounds
Two Emmys was beaten as the favorite Saturday in the Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes, but he ran well in defeat and should be set up for strong showings next month in the Fair Grounds Stakes and in the Muniz Memorial in March.
Making his first start since a close second-place finish in the 1 1/2-mile Sycamore Stakes during Keeneland’s meet in October, Two Emmys shot to the front under James Graham and led, racing along the inside, until the final couple jumps, when Forty Under and Halo Again passed him. He wound up third, beaten a half-length, with a respectable 95 Beyer.
“It didn’t really set up for him,” said trainer and co-owner Hugh Robertson. “The inside was the worst part of the course and he got stuck down in there. He was a little too sharp, too – he shot out of the gate and Jimmy didn’t want to wrestle him back. He came out of it in good shape.”
The 1 1/16-mile Bradley is a shorter race than Two Emmys prefers but his next two starts at Fair Grounds, provided he makes them, are contested over 1 1/8 miles.
“He can go a little slower when they go farther. My plan was to run him three times here and then freshen him up a little bit,” Robertson said.