Two Phil's has first post-Derby workout, next race uncertain
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STICKNEY, Ill. – Two Phil’s on Sunday at Hawthorne had work No. 1 since finishing second May 6 in the Kentucky Derby.
The drill was a mere maintenance half-mile timed in 50.80 seconds but suggested the colt had, as trainer Larry Rivelli has maintained over the last two weeks, come out of the Derby in encouraging condition.
“He came back good, he looks good, his energy is good,” Rivelli said.
And Rivelli on Monday still was good with the decision he and Two Phil’s owners made to pass Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.
“I think he would have won, but that’s not what it’s all about, torch him and not have anything for the rest of the year,” said Rivelli.
The Haskell on July 22 at Monmouth Park and the Travers on Aug. 26 at Saratoga are the key summer goals for Two Phil’s. When and where he starts before then has yet to be determined.
Connections have three races under consideration; most likely is the $500,000 Ohio Derby on June 24 at Thistledown, with the June 10 Belmont a less likely possibility, and the June 11 Matt Winn at Churchill less likely still.
“Probably the Ohio Derby, maybe the Belmont. Just not quite sure yet,” said Rivelli, who trains Two Phil’s for Patricia’s Hope, Phillip Sagan, and Madaket Stables.
Rivelli said he planned to keep Two Phil’s a on a seven- or eight-day work pattern at his Hawthorne base.
Rivelli had no 3-year-olds in action Saturday at Pimlico, but he did win the Golden Circle Stakes on Saturday at Prairie Meadows with rising 3-year-old sprinter Uncashed. Purchased privately by Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope LLC after a romping debut win last September at Louisiana Downs, Uncashed beat some decent older horses in a pair of Hawthorne allowance races before capturing the six-furlong Golden Circle by 8 1/2 lengths.
Rivelli said he’s considering a trip to New York for Uncashed, while he plans to send Nobals to Belmont Park for the Grade 1, $400,000 Jaipur Stakes, a six-furlong grass race on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Nobals, who worked Sunday at Hawthorne, won the Grade 2 Turf Sprint on Derby Day at Churchill.
Oeuvre just too good
Oeuvre didn’t run one of her best races but didn’t need to winning the Third Chance Stakes on Sunday at Hawthorne. Dropping down in class from open stakes races to Illinois-bred competition, Oeuvre snapped a two-race losing streak with a 4 3/4-length score in the Third Chance. Oeuvre is a better horse on turf than dirt, but even on dirt she proved much too good for statebred-restricted competition.
Owned and bred by Richard Perkins, Oeuvre on Sunday was saddled by Mickey Goldfine, who is training Chris Block’s string while Block serves a suspension. Oeuvre has been one of the most successful Illinois-breds of recent vintage, going 7-0-1 from eight 2022 starts. She won three stakes, one on dirt, two on turf, during the 2022-23 Fair Grounds meet.
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◗ Two Emmys, who was scratched during warmups for the Muniz Memorial on March 25 at Fair Grounds, got back on the work tab with a half-mile move May 10 at Hawthorne. Trainer and principal owner Hugh Robertson said Two Emmys, winner of the Grade 2 Muniz in 2022 and the Grade 1 Mr. D. in August 2021, must have stepped on something after leaving the Fair Grounds paddock since the gelding was sound while being saddled and sound back at Robertson’s barn after the scratch.
◗ A highly competitive field of 10 was entered in the featured eighth race Thursday at Hawthorne, a six-furlong dirt sprint with a $40,000 claiming option and two allowance conditions: non-winners of two races other than maiden, claiming, or starter, and non-winners of four races.
Broken Rib, in from Kentucky for trainer Tom Amoss, and Hawthorne-based Omaha Red are the likely favorites.
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