With Velazquez aboard, Napoleon Solo puts in another flashy work
:quality(75))
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Napoleon Solo had a new rider for his key workout Wednesday morning at Saratoga, but the results were the same as always, the Preakness winner breezing an eye-catching five furlongs in 58.87 seconds before galloping out a mile in 1:37.94 with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez aboard.
Although he was scheduled to work in company, with a horse from trainer Rudy Rodriguez’s barn, Napoleon Solo wound up going solo shortly before 9 a.m. Easing away an opening furlong in 12.56, Napoleon Solo picked up the pace steadily thereafter while never being extended by Velazquez at any point. Napoleon Solo completed his final quarter-mile to the wire in 23.24 before continuing six furlongs in 1:11.66 and seven furlongs in 1:24.44.
“That’s just kind of normal for him,” trainer Chad Summers said afterward. “The one thing we’ve seen from him in his works ever since we first added blinkers as a 2-year-old is his consistency. He worked that way before pretty much all his races, including the Champagne, the Preakness, and the Haskell.”
Summers said he warned Velazquez, who was aboard Napoleon Solo for the first time Wednesday, that the horse would be traveling a lot faster than he’d think throughout the course of the work.
“That’s just the way he’s always done it. He does it so easily, and if you’re going to be running a mile and one-quarter, you want to see that kind of big gallop-out,” Summers said. “From the way he breezed this morning, it certainly doesn’t look like he’s regressed in any way off his effort in the Haskell.”
Although Summers appears to be leaning toward running Napoleon Solo in the Grade 1 Travers on Aug. 29 rather than awaiting the Pennsylvania Derby three weeks later, he said that decision won’t be confirmed until he meets with the ownership group. The same goes for who the rider might be if he does run in the Travers, with Napoleon Solo’s regular jockey, Paco Lopez, currently appealing a suspension handed down by the Saratoga stewards for gross careless riding in the Wild Applause Stakes here July 3.
“Honestly, I don’t know what either decision will be at the moment,” Summers said. “As far as I know, Paco had a hearing yesterday, but I have no idea what the results were. Having Johnny work him today gives us another option. As for the Travers, all I can say is he’s doing well and he’s run well here in the past. It’s a mile and one-quarter, but that’s only a sixteenth of a mile farther than he ran in the Preakness, although arguably it will be against a tougher field, understood.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.