Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Weyburn will move on to Wood Memorial
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – While Gotham Stakes winner Weyburn will most certainly be nominated to the Triple Crown and will likely make his next start in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3, trainer Jimmy Jerkens stopped short of saying he’s pointing the horse to the Kentucky Derby.
Jerkens mentioned the Belmont Stakes on June 5 as a Triple Crown race he might prefer for Weyburn, a son of Pioneerof the Nile.
Noting the job trainer Christophe Clement did with Tonalist in 2014, Jerkens said Sunday, “I would love to take the route that Christophe went with Tonalist. He handled that horse so beautifully. He got the ultimate out of that horse.”
Jerkens ran Wicked Strong in that year’s Belmont, finishing fourth, 1 1/4 lengths behind Tonalist.
Weyburn, making his first start since winning a sevenfurlong maiden race at Aqueduct on Dec. 5, won Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham by a nose over Crowded Trade, who was making just his second career start.
Weyburn earned 50 qualifying points to the Derby – certainly enough to get him into the race. Weyburn was not an original nominee to the Triple Crown series when the first $600 deadline passed on Jan. 23. The second deadline is March 29, when the fee is $6,000.
Weyburn gives Jerkens the appearance of a horse who should like going a longer distance of ground. The Wood Memorial, at 1 1/8 miles, would be Weyburn’s first start around two turns.
“He’s steady,” Jerkens said. “He’s not a plodder by any means, because he has nice speed. It looked like at the five-sixteenths pole [Saturday] he was starting to lose a little ground and then he got right back into it.”
Weyburn was a bit late switching leads in the Gotham, but once he did he resurged to beat Crowded Trade.
On a track that was not yielding particularly quick times, Weyburn ran a mile in 1:38.70 and was assigned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
Jerkens noted that a path such as the Wood, Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 8, and the Belmont might also be appealing because Weyburn will get to stay home in New York, where he is based at Belmont Park.
“As sensitive as he is about new things at least it’s right here,” Jerkens said, referring specifically to the Wood. “He takes a while to get used to stuff.”
Weyburn is Canadian-bred, so naturally the Queens Plate at Woodbine in August is something that will be considered. But his owners, the Chiefswood Stable of Robert and Mark Krembril, have made a point to Jerkens that they want to see where their horses fit in the U.S.
Trainer Chad Brown said Crowded Trade would likely run back in the Wood, and Highly Motivated, who finished third as the 4-5 favorite in the Gotham, would likely make his next start in the Grade 2, $800,000 Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 3. Brown also plans to run Withers Stakes winner Risk Taking in the Wood, which awards Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 100-40-20-10 basis. All three of those horses are owned by Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables.
Crowded Trade, making just his second lifetime start following a maiden win here going six furlongs on Jan. 28, tracked from third behind both Weyburn and the pacesetting Freedom Fighter. Crowded Trade poked his head in front of Weyburn in midstretch, only to lose the bob at the wire.
“I thought he was moving a little stronger on the turn when he had a target,” Brown said. “I think when he lost that target he might have lost his way a little bit. That said, he had every chance to win, the other horse just found more when the wire came.”
Brown felt Highly Motivated was compromised by a slow start and having to steady a furlong into the race. Still, Brown said he was proud of the way Highly Motivated “regathered himself and put another run in.”
The Blue Grass makes sense for Highly Motivated since he won the Nyquist Stakes at Keeneland last Nov. 6.