War of Will, Got Stormy preparing for warmup stakes

With limited graded stakes options for the foreseeable future, trainer Mark Casse is looking at a pair of overnight stakes at Gulfstream Park for two of his stable stars.

War of Will, last year’s Preakness winner, could return to the races in the $75,000 Sunshine Forever Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race May 9.

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War of Will has not raced since he finished ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November at Santa Anita. He has not raced on turf since finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs in November 2018.

War of Will has been working on the turf at Palm Meadows, where on Sunday he went five furlongs in 57.65 seconds inside of orange cones, known as dogs.

Meanwhile, Got Stormy, who was beaten a neck when facing males in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 7 at Santa Anita, is targeting the $75,000 Powder Break Stakes going a mile on May 16. Got Stormy worked five furlongs in 59.75 on April 12 at Palm Meadows.

Casse said these races would be used as preps for bigger events later in the year, when tracks that have canceled races because of the coronavirus pandemic begin running again.

Meanwhile, Sir Winston, last year’s Belmont Stakes winner, returned to the work tab Thursday, breezing three furlongs in 37.82 over the Belmont Park training track.

It was Sir Winston’s first work since he returned from Dubai where he was scheduled to run in the $12 million Dubai World Cup on March 28 at Meydan. That race was canceled.

Sir Winston has not run since winning a one-mile allowance race on Jan. 31 at Aqueduct.

“We just let him stretch his legs,” Casse said. “We’ll let him do something more serious, perhaps go five-eighths next time. We’ll be ready once racing is ready to resume in New York.”