Upstart ready to go for 3-year-old debut in Holy Bull

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Upstart, who finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in his 2-year-old finale, now is likely to make his 3-year-old debut Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 2 Holy Bull.

Earlier this month, trainer Rick Violette said everything would have to go right with Upstart for him to make the Holy Bull, but after watching the New York-bred work six furlongs from the five-eighths pole in “1:12 and change” Sunday at Palm Meadows, he proclaimed him ready to go next weekend.

“The work was scary good today,” said Violette. “The rider asked him to finish up a little but never hit him or anything like that. She just chirped to him a little and gave him his head, and he finished real strong. If he scopes clean and comes out of the work OK, we’re going to run in the Holy Bull.”

Violette said he’d like to get three races into Upstart, who also finished second at 2 in the Grade 1 Champagne, prior to the Kentucky Derby.

“I would like to have gotten a mile into him at some point, but this breeze should have him pretty right,” said Violette. “He’s certainly ready to give a good account of himself. If somebody else runs faster, they run faster. Also, by running next Saturday, it gives me an extra two weeks to play with as we move forward this winter. It gives me the option of coming back in either the Fountain of Youth or the Gotham and doesn’t lock me into having to run him every four weeks.”