Weaver has busy morning with turf workers; Sacred Wish eyes Diana

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Like just about everybody else with horses currently stabled on the grounds at Saratoga, Friday morning was a particularly busy one for trainer George Weaver once the turf course opened for training for just the second time this spring.

Weaver sent out 10 horses to breeze over the grass at the Oklahoma training track, including four – Sacred Wish, Governor Sam, Outlaw Kid, and Golden Channel – during the special session reserved for stakes horses immediately after the course opened at 10 a.m.

All four Weaver runners breezed solo, led by Grade 1 winner Sacred Wish, who went a half-mile inside the cones in 48.77 seconds, per Daily Racing Form, completing her final quarter in 23.11 before galloping out a solid five-eighths in 1:01.28. Like all the workers on the turf this morning, she benefited from a strong tailwind down the stretch and into the turn.

Sacred Wish, winner of the Grade 1 Matriarch in her 2024 finale and runner-up in the Grade 1 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf Invitational to launch her 2025 campaign, is coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile at Churchill Downs on Derby Day.

“She drew bad and it rained before her last start,” Weaver said. “We’ll probably take a look at the Diana next.”

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The Grade 1, $500,000 Diana will be run at 1 1/8 miles on July 12 at Saratoga.

Governor Sam, a beaten favorite in his only two starts this season after finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint last fall, breezed four furlongs inside the dogs in 49.61, responding to late pressure to also finish and gallop out with good energy, easing up after five-eighths in 1:01.74. Weaver said the Grade 3 Quick Call on July 13 would likely be next on his agenda.

Golden Channel is coming off a distant third-place finish in the Pennine Ridge, a race washed off the turf and switched to a muddy main track here earlier this month. Golden Channel switched back to his left lead in late stretch but responded to late urging to shade 23 seconds for the final quarter of a 48.44 half-mile while also continuing full of run into the bend.

Weaver was noncommittal about what might be next for Golden Channel or Outlaw Kid after he worked a half-mile in 26.16 and 50.28 while under some late urging to finish. Outlaw Kid has not started since finishing fifth, beaten just 1 1/4 lengths, in the Turf Sprint Championship on Nov. 9 at Aqueduct.

“This was just his third work back, so we’ve got nothing picked out just yet,” said Weaver, whose promising 2-year-old Sandal’s Song finished third, beaten just three lengths by the odds-on Charles Darwin, at Royal Ascot the previous afternoon in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes.

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