Unchained Melody has gate work for Alabama

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Unchained Melody, the Grade 2 Mother Goose winner, worked five furlongs in 1:01.78 out of the starting gate Friday morning in preparation for next Saturday’s Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama Stakes.

Over the main track, Unchained Melody worked outside of the 3-year-old colt Meantime, the Peter Pan Stakes runner-up who finished eighth in the Belmont Stakes. Trainer Brian Lynch said that Meantime needed a gate work, and he thought it would be good for Unchained Melody to follow someone out of the gate. Meantime is pointing to a first-level allowance race on Aug. 19, Lynch said.

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“I wanted to give her a little company so if something sort of goes with her that she knows to sit off her and relax,” Lynch said. “She sat a little bit back off him and did it very nicely and joined him around the turn to finish up, and that was about all I wanted out of her. I thought it was a pretty good work.”

Joel Rosario was aboard Unchained Melody for the work and in the Mother Goose, and will be aboard her in the Alabama.

That leaves Salty, the third-place finisher in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks, in need of a new rider for the Alabama. Rosario was aboard Salty in her last five starts, including a victory in the Gulfstream Park Oaks and a fifth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.

On Friday, Salty worked four furlongs in 47.89 seconds over the Saratoga main track, the fastest of 57 moves at the distance.

“She worked really well today,” trainer Mark Casse said. “She came home really good. She just skips across this track.”

Casse said he is still working on getting a rider for Salty.