Wicked Strong preparing for 4-year-old debut

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wicked Strong arrived at the Palm Meadows training center recently to prepare for his 4-year-old campaign.

Wicked Strong won the Grade 1 Wood Memorial and Grade 2 Jim Dandy and was beaten a nose by stablemate V. E. Day in the Grade 1 Travers at 3. He also finished fourth last spring in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont.

Wicked Strong has not started since clipping heels and falling on the second turn of the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 27. He started twice locally in 2014, finishing ninth in the Grade 2 Holy Bull and fourth behind Constitution and Tonalist in an entry-level optional-claiming race.

“He’s been galloping since arriving at Palm Meadows and will probably have his first breeze next week,” said trainer Jimmy Jerkens. “He certainly didn’t run well here last year, but that doesn’t mean anything. He’s a different horse now; he’s grown up a lot more. He probably won’t make the Donn, but you never know. After we breeze him a couple of times, if he comes to hand real quick, we might decide to go ahead and run him. It all depends.”

Jerkens also said that V. E. Day remains on the farm in Ocala. V. E. Day closed out his 3-year-old season finishing 11th after getting knocked about early in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“He ran late into the year, got pretty light in the flesh, so we’re not in any real rush to get him back,” Jerkens said.

House Rules cruises in handicap

Jerkens will likely look to put House Rules back in against graded stakes company after she cruised to an easy 9 1/4-length victory in Friday’s $60,000 Bal Harbour overnight handicap. The 4-year-old daughter of Distorted Humor was trained by Allen Jerkens here last winter when finishing second in the Davona Dale and Gulfstream Oaks, both Grade 2 events. She has won 3 of 5 starts, each of those tallies coming by margins of six lengths or greater, since being transferred to the younger Jerkens’s barn in New York last spring.