Uncle Jerry training sharply for Harty

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Eoin Harty will be well represented in the two stakes for juveniles at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday, but one of the 2-year-olds who is training best for him, Uncle Jerry, will stay in the barn for now.

Uncle Jerry, a son of Uncle Mo, will be kept in two-turn races and likely will start in a first-level allowance before possibly aiming for the Triple Crown prep races. On Monday, Uncle Jerry breezed a half-mile in 48.40 seconds, the second-fastest of 29 works at the distance here.

The colt, trained and co-owned by Harty, has one win in five starts, having taken a $33,000 maiden special weight race going a mile at Presque Isle Downs in September. Uncle Jerry has run in two graded stakes, finishing eighth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland and last of 13 in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs last out.

Harty chose not to nominate Uncle Jerry for Saturday’s $100,000 Inaugural Stakes, for 2-year-olds at six furlongs.

“I’m going to keep him at two turns,” Harty said. “He’s always been a very good work horse. He has a very long stride and covers the ground very efficiently, but he’s not built for three-quarters, so we’re not going to cut him back to a sprint. He works very fast very easily, but sprinting is a totally different ballgame.”

In the Inaugural, Harty plans to start Transform, a Bernardini colt who is 2 for 2 for Godolphin Racing and will be making his stakes debut, and Brerry, who won a $20,000 maiden special weight race on the Hawthorne turf in his second start in October.

In Saturday’s $100,000 Sandpiper Stakes, for 2-year-old fillies at six furlongs, Harty plans to run Conflate and Slip of the Tongue. Conflate, a Bernardini filly owned by Godolphin, is 1 for 2, while Slip of the Tongue, by Colonel John, won a $33,000 maiden special weight race in her third start last out at Presque Isle Downs.

Southern Quality sidelined

Southern Quality, who finished a distant second behind the impressive debut winner Ishaq on Nov. 28, will miss about three months of training after developing sore shins following a workout Tuesday, trainer David Hinsley said.

Southern Quality was a candidate for the Inaugural Stakes but only would have run in that race had the field come up light, Hinsley said. On Tuesday here, the Exclusive Quality colt breezed three furlongs in 37.20 seconds.

“We’re not going to take any chances,” Hinsley said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. He might be able to start toward the end of the meet.”

Southern Quality races for Nemisis Racing Stable, William Olsen, and Brittany and Heidi Terlep and sold for just $1,200 in April at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. In his career debut going 5 1/2 furlongs here Nov. 28, the colt broke slowly and was beaten 10 1/4 lengths by the heavily favored Ishaq, though he finished 8 1/2 lengths clear of third-place Tarpon.

“We think he’s a runner,” Hinsley said. “He looks like he wants more ground because he galloped out past that other horse. Ishaq looks like a pretty nice horse and should be one of the favorites in the stakes.”