No day of rest

Breeders’ Cup horses working everywhere yesterday but none more impressively than Discreet Cat, who with limited opportunity has not run well in almost a year.

Discreet Cat, who is pre-entered in Friday’s Dirt Mile, worked five furlongs in a bullet :57.46, handily on the main track at Belmont. Garrett Gomez was in the boot. In good form, he equaled Easy Goer’s course record for eight furlongs in the Cigar Mile. He may have come back to that form and if that is the case, it is bad news for the others in the Dirst Mile.

“His work this morning was fast, and probably a little faster than we expected, but we are taking it as a positive sign,” said Rick Mettee, assistant to trainer Saeed bin Suroor. “The track was extraordinarily fast, from what I gather from talking to the clockers, and he was well within himself. “When horses are that good, they will sometimes work fast. We’re looking at this as a sign that he is ready and he still wants to run.”


Meanwhile, at the Pletcher encampment …


“Everything went very smoothly,” Todd Pletcher told a group of reporters outside of his barn on a perfect Sunday morning. “Everybody went really well.”


Lawyer Ron and Any Given Saturday, both in the Classic, worked five furlongs in 1:02.12, breezing, and 1:01.26, breezing, respectively.


“Lawyer Ron got on the bridle early, but he was manageable,” Pletcher said. “He is a very good work horse. If you allowed him to, he would go extra fast. Any Given Saturday was aggressive, but that’s him. We got what we wanted from both of them.”


Pletcher also worked his delgation to the Distaff: Indian Vale (1:01.69); Octave (1:00.68); Unbridled Belle (1:01.28) and Panty Raid (four furlongs, :49.10, breezing).


Pletcher said he was “on the fence” on whether Panty Raid would run in the Distaff or the Filly & Mare Turf, and would likely make a decision Monday. Post positions will be drawn Tuesday at 11 a.m. after the close of entries at Monmouth Park.


And then, the turf horses: They all worked five furlongs, too: English Channel (1:03.55, breezing); Honey Ryder (1:03.41, breezing); Host (1:03.41, breezing) and Icy Atlantic (four furlongs, :50.71 breezing) around the “dogs” on the soft inner turf course. Wait a While, prepping for the Filly & Mare Turf, in 1:04.11, breezing. The Leopard, pre-entered for the inaugural Juvenile Turf on Friday, worked a half-mile in :50.64, breezing, under jockey Edgar Prado, and in company with The Green Monkey. (Good thing slow isn’t contagious) Prado is on the mend from a broken ankle he suffered early in the Saratoga meeting.



“I feel good and I am fit,” Prado said. “I’ve been going to the jockeys’ room, then to physical therapy and then to the gym. I was hoping to get back in time for the Breeders’ Cup, but I think a lot of these horses are already taken.”


And then …


Indian Blessing, undefeated winner of the Grade 1 Frizette for trainer Bob Baffert, worked five furlongs in :58.42. She is the likely Juvenile Fillies favorite … Bobby Frankel got a strong half-mile work from Ginger Punch (:48.14), for the Distaff, and Argentina went six furlongs in 1:17.04 for the Filly & Mare Turf … Christophe Clement worked In Summation five furlongs in 1:00.10 for the Sprint … Angel Penna Jr. sent out Remarkable News for a five-furlong breeze, 1:02.71, on the soft inner turf course. He will be the first Venezuelan-bred to run in the Breeders’ Cup and a serious threat … Penna also worked Shamdinan, who went five furlongs on the sod in 1:03.60 for the Turf.

At Aqueduct, Bobby Ribaudo worked Sword Dancer winner Grand Couturier five furlongs in 1:04.03, breezing on the soft turf course. He is on course for the Turf on Saturday. Rick Violette sent out Phantom Income, who worked the bullet of :47.61 in preparation for the Juvenile Fillies, and Dream Rush, who worked a half-mile in :47.96, breezing, as she readied herself for the first running Filly & Mare Sprint on Friday. Violette also worked High Finance, the Tom Fool winner, who went in :48.65 for the Dirt Mile, and Globalization for the Juvenile.

“Every work was better than the other,” Violette said. “Even Globalization, who tends to be on the lazy side in the mornings, worked well. Dream Rush was in hand, and High Finance was just a maintenance work because we laid into him pretty good in his last few works.”


Down the Shore …

Kentucky Derby and Travers winner Street Sense made his first appearance on the main track at Monmouth Park Sunday morning, galloping an easy mile under exercise rider Tracey Wilkes as he began final preparations the Classic.

“He was fresh, and I figured he would be,” Carl Nafzger said. “He galloped (eighths) in 15 and change and 16s. It was a good morning.”

He will work on Tuesday morning with Calvin Borel up. Rain is in the long-range forecast for Tuesday, but Nafzger said the work would most likely go as scheduled. “I don’t want to work on a sloppy track if I don’t have to,” Nafzger said. “But Tuesday, I’d say it’s probably 95 percent that we’d work, but there could be some things that maybe could make us change our minds.”

Rain also is in the long-range forecast for the weekend. “Everybody’s concern elevates when it is a sloppy track,” Nafzger said. “It just puts a lot more unknowns into the equation. The rest of the time, you just go out and execute and run your race. In the slop, it is a question of who is it going to move up; who is it going to take down. You can’t worry about it, but it just puts a lot more concern [into the race). Could speed be more dominant because you don’t get the mud in your face? It makes for a lot of different scenarios.” Lady Joanne, Distaff, is scheduled to work Monday morning at Churchill Downs.


And finally, Idiot Proof, who holds the Monmouth track record for six furlongs, breezed five furlongs in 1:00 4/5 Sunday for the Sprint .