Wise Dan sharp in workout for Bernard Baruch

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Shortly after 5:30 a.m. and only minutes before a thick fog enveloped Saratoga, two-time reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan put in an eye-catching half-mile workout in 48.10 seconds Sunday in preparation for Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap.

Showing the eagerness and energy he had displayed in the past, Wise Dan, under Damien Rock, had a strong run-up to the half-mile pole and went in splits of 24.06 seconds and 24.04. He then galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.87, six furlongs in 1:13.65, and seven-eighths in 1:27.93, looking every bit the old Wise Dan.

“If this would have happened a couple of weeks ago, I would have run him in the Fourstardave,” trainer Charlie LoPresti said, referring to a Grade 2, one-mile race run here Aug. 9. “I was only 80 percent for that race; now I got him 100 percent. Maybe he could have won being 80 percent. He did it last year at Keeneland. But this is a different deal. He’s coming off surgery, and I want him to be 100 percent.”

Wise Dan, who has not run since winning the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic over Seek Again on May 3, underwent colic surgery May 16.

In Sunday’s work, Rock said that after he squeezed Wise Dan at the quarter pole, he had to quickly take a hold of the horse “or he would have really gone fast. I definitely feel like he’s ready. He was his usual self, hard to hold him going to the pole.”

Weight assignments for the Bernard Baruch, a 1 1/16-mile turf race, were due out later Sunday.

“All systems go,” LoPresti said. “My plan is to enter the Bernard Baruch. If it doesn’t end up being terrible weather and they don’t kill him with the weights, I want to run him.”