Zandon works half-mile for Breeders' Cup Classic
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Zandon, convincing winner of the Grade 2 Woodward at Aqueduct on Oct. 1, returned to the work tab Saturday at Belmont Park as he prepares for a start in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.
Zandon, who went a half-mile in 48.87 seconds according to track clockers, was one of three likely Breeders’ Cup starters trainer Chad Brown sent out for works early Saturday morning in an attempt to beat the rain that started to fall steadily shortly before 10 a.m.
For Zandon, it was his first work since the Woodward victory, which followed second-place finishes in the Grade 1 Whitney, Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap, and the Grade 3 Westchester.
“Impressive work,” Brown said. “I’m very pleased with him. His energy level is good. What I saw today I really liked.”
Brown has not yet solidified a jockey for Zandon in the Classic. Flavien Prat, who rode him in the Woodward, is committed to ride Arabian Knight, the Grade 1 Pacific Classic winner, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Meanwhile, with rain coming in that likely would have created a wet track for Sunday, Brown wheeled both Search Results and Goodnight Olive back to work five days after they breezed on Monday. Search Results, pointing to the Distaff, worked a half-mile in 49.66 seconds while Goodnight Olive, targeting a repeat victory in the Filly and Mare Sprint, worked a half-mile in 49.44 seconds.
Brown worked both of those mares from the three-eighths pole to a furlong past the wire, whereas Zandon had his breeze begin at the half-mile pole.
“They did something easy to get them back on potentially a Friday and Saturday schedule,” Brown said. “We’ve been pushed into Mondays because of rain. We modified it a little bit, but they went terrific.”
Brown plans to work his Belmont Park-based Breeders’ Cup horses - a list that also includes Randomized [Distaff], McKulick [Filly and Mare Turf], General Partner [Juvenile], and Hard to Justify [Juvenile Fillies Turf] - the next two weekends at Belmont before shipping out on Oct. 29.
Brown has Gina Romantica and In Italian, the one-two finishers from the Grade 1 First Lady, still based at Keeneland. Those mares will work at Keeneland before shipping to California on the 29th or 30th.
While Brown said Gina Romantica and In Italian will be pre-entered in both the Filly and Mare Turf and the Mile, he said he is leaning toward running Gina Romantica in the Mile and has not yet decided in which race In Italian would run. In Italian finished second in last year’s Filly and Mare Turf.
Brown said Whitebeam, the Grade 1 Diana winner who finished fourth in the First Lady, is going to point to the Grade 3, $300,000 Matriarch at Del Mar on Dec. 3.
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