War Story gets in some gate work

War Story broke slowly when he finished second to International Star in the Lecomte and Risen Star stakes in his last two starts, and trainer Tom Amoss is trying to correct the issue before the Louisiana Derby on March 28.

On Monday, War Story broke out of the gate and ran about an eighth of a mile, a schooling session intended to improve his start.

“Instead of tailing him, which is what we did in the race, we put pads in the gate that confines the amount of room he has, so there’s not a lot of rocking back and forth,” Amoss said. “He left there very well, and that’s the strategy we’re going to employ for the race.”

War Story worked on Monday, March 9, but because of the gate session, Amoss pushed his work this week back to Wednesday. Working that far out from the Louisiana Derby will approximate the training pattern Amoss applied out of necessity before War Story’s good showing in the Risen Star. War Story had been sent to Oaklawn for the Southwest Stakes but was shipped back to Fair Grounds two days before that race when it became apparent that the Southwest would have to be postponed because of bad weather. That cost War Story a workout, but the colt ran well on the altered schedule.

“One of the things we learned from the aborted trip to Oaklawn is that maybe we don’t need to work him as often,” said Amoss.

On Monday, Amoss worked his sprint star Delaunay a half-mile in a bullet 47.20 seconds, a typically brilliant Fair Grounds drill for the gelding, who was second to the sharp Bet Seattle last out Feb. 21 in the Duncan F. Kenner Stakes. Amoss said there’s no set plan for Delaunay, though he is likely to start next in a stakes race at Keeneland in April or Churchill in May.