Vino Rosso cruises through final work for Jockey Club Gold Cup

ELMONT, N.Y. – Vino Rosso completed his major preparations for a start in next Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup by working five furlongs in 59.02 seconds Friday morning over a glib Belmont Park main track.

Vino Rosso started his work about five lengths behind stablemate Singapore Trader, creeping up alongside that one at the three-sixteenths pole. The two finished up together with Vino Rosso getting his final three furlongs in 35.00 seconds. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.78 while edging away from Singapore Trader.

For the second straight week, Irad Ortiz Jr. was aboard Vino Rosso for a workout. Ortiz will ride Vino Rosso in the Jockey Club Gold Cup as his regular rider, John Velazquez, is committed to ride Travers winner Code of Honor in the Gold Cup.

“It was a good, solid work. He hasn’t run since the Whitney and we’re going a mile and a quarter,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “The main thing was I liked the way it was executed. He galloped out with good energy, sharp, and when he came back here he cooled out quickly.”

Vino Rosso won the Grade 1 Gold Cup at Santa Anita at 1 1/4 miles in May and has only raced once since, a third-place finish behind McKinzie in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 3. He was entered in but scratched from the Grade 1 Woodward on Aug. 31 to await this race.

As of Friday, the Jockey Club Gold Cup had five confirmed runners. Preservationist, the Grade 2 Suburban and Grade 1 Woodward winner, is expected to run, as are Travers 1-2 finishers Code of Honor and Tacitus, and Tenfold, the Pimlico Special winner.

Plans made for Pletcher 2-year-olds

Debut winners Alpha Sixty Six and Gouverneur Morris worked five furlongs in 1:00.73 in company over the Belmont Park training track Friday morning as they prepare for their upcoming Grade 1 stakes engagements.

Alpha Sixty Six, under John Velazquez, and Gouverneur Morris, on the outside with Javier Castellano up, went their opening three furlongs in 36.73 seconds and got their final quarter in 24.00. Gouverneur Morris finished about a neck in front at the wire and proceeded to gallop out a bit better of the two, getting six furlongs in 1:14.26.

Gouverneur Morris, who won his 5 1/2-furlong debut by nine lengths at Saratoga on Sept. 2, is likely to make his next start in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 5. Alpha Sixty Six, who won his 6 1/2-furlong debut by a neck on Sept. 7 at Belmont, is expected to run in the Grade 1 Champagne here on Oct. 5.

“Both are coming off one race and stretching out, wanted to get a good solid work into both of them, and they seemed to handle it well,” Pletcher said.