Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Sippican Harbor right on track
ELMONT, N.Y. – Sippican Harbor, the Grade 1 Spinaway winner, worked a solid six furlongs in 1:13.81 Monday morning over Belmont Park’s training track as she continues preparations for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 2 at Churchill Downs.
Sippican Harbor, under exercise rider M.C. Brock, worked alongside the juvenile stakes winner Maiden Beauty. The pair went their first three furlongs in 35.84 seconds. Sippican Harbor went from the quarter pole to the wire in 24.79 seconds, finishing slightly in front, and completed six furlongs a furlong past the wire. Sippican Harbor galloped out through seven furlongs in 1:27.44 and a mile in 1:42.52.
“She’s just so good right now,” trainer Gary Contessa said. “She just keeps going. She takes a deep breath at the wire and she gallops out just as good as she works.”
It was Sippican Harbor’s third work since the Spinaway, a race in which she defeated Restless Rider by two lengths. Restless Rider came back to win the Grade 1 Alcibiades last Friday at Keeneland.
Brock is a former jockey who resides in Saratoga and works for Contessa when he keeps horses at that track from the spring through the end of the meet. Brock currently works for trainer James Bond, but drives down to Belmont specifically to work Sippican Harbor. She will also accompany the horse to Kentucky when the filly ships later this month.
“She’s the only rider who’s ever gotten on her,” Contessa said. “Why mess it up?”
Brock said Sippican Harbor is getting “better and better.”
“When I came down a few weeks ago, she went in 1:03 and I felt like I was just galloping,” she said.
Contessa said he will have Sippican Harbor do the bulk of her training at Belmont, and that she may have a blowout at Churchill Downs the week of the Breeders’ Cup depending on when she ships.
Catholic Boy skips work
Travers winner Catholic Boy skipped a workout this weekend, owing to a temperature that trainer Jonathan Thomas said shouldn’t prevent the 3-year-old from making the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.
“It’s very minor in the grand scheme of things,” Thomas said Monday. “He had a mild temperature, which has since rectified. We just didn’t want to take any chances. I’m anticipating being able to breeze him this weekend. I’m glad it’s a month out and not a week out.”
Catholic Boy worked three furlongs on Sept. 23 and a half-mile on Sept. 30. Thomas said Catholic Boy returned to the work tab a week ahead of schedule.
“I don’t see this making a big dent in our preparations,” he said.
Got Stormy returns in Pebbles
Got Stormy, who won stakes at three different tracks in 50 days during the spring and summer, returns from a three-month freshening in Saturday’s $200,000 Pebbles Stakes at Belmont Park.
Got Stormy, trained by Mark Casse, won the Penn Oaks at Penn National on June 2, the Wild Applause at Belmont on June 23, and the Grade 3 Ontario Colleen Stakes at Woodbine on July 21. All three races were at a mile, the same distance as the Pebbles.
Trainer Mark Casse had planned to run Got Stormy in the Del Mar Oaks in midAugust, but said he felt the filly was a bit flat and opted to pass.
In the Pebbles, Casse also entered Closer Still, who has twice won on synthetic but is 0 for 5 on turf.
A field of 12 was entered Monday for the Pebbles, including Altea, Significant Form, and Stella di Camelot from the barn of Chad Brown, Andina Del Sur, Cool Beans, Goodthingstaketime, Kitten’s Covergirl, Monte Crista, Souper Striking, and Victorine.
Saturday’s 10-race card also includes the inaugural running of the $100,000 Floral Park Stakes for females going six furlongs on turf.
Lady Alexandra, so sharp in winning the License Fee Stakes here in April, tops the field of 12 entered for the turf. An additional two were entered in the event the race is moved to the dirt.
Lady Alexandra, trained by Graham Motion, is coming off a ninth-place finish in the Presque Isle Downs Masters, run over a synthetic surface.
Others entered in the Floral Park were Always Thinking, Annie Rocks, Battle Joined, Black Canary, Fear No Evil, Fire Key, Jc’s Shooting Star, Lull, Orecchiette, Rocky Policy, and Tillie’s Lily.
On Monday, Tillie’s Lily blew out a sharp three furlongs in 35.83 seconds while her stablemate Orecchiette went an easier three-eighths in 39.20 seconds. Both fillies, who have combined to win 4 of 5 starts at Belmont, are trained by Jonathan Thomas.
◗ Jockey Manny Franco will serve a one-day suspension on Friday for misuse of the whip, according to a ruling issued by the stewards. In the fourth race at Belmont on Oct. 4, Franco hit the horse Quiet Out East in an area of the body that is not permitted. He had been previously warned and fined $500 for doing the same to My Mr. Wonderful in the fifth race on Sept. 22.