G3 Winner El Areeb Favored in Saturday’s G3 Withers at Aqueduct
G3 Winner El Areeb Favored in Saturday’s G3 Withers at Aqueduct
Irish War Cry, Painter’s Rags Open Season This Weekend in Florida
Laurel Stakes Winners Tequilita, Ms Locust Point Meet in G2 Forward Gal
Friday Post Time 12:30 P.M.
LAUREL, MD – M M G Stables’ Grade 3 winner El Areeb, based at Laurel Park with trainer Cal Lynch, takes another step on the Triple Crown trail in Saturday’s $250,000 Withers (G3) at Aqueduct.
El Areeb is the 6-5 program favorite and 122-pound highweight in a 10-horse field for the 1 1/16-mile Withers. It will mark a return to the inner track following his 11 ¼-length romp in the Jerome (G3) Jan. 2.
Trevor McCarthy, Maryland’s leading rider in 2014 and 2016, has the return call aboard El Areeb, who will break from Post 4.
“He came out of his last race great and we’re lucky the weather cooperated and we got our works in whenever we wanted to get them in,” Lynch said. “He had a good work here on Tuesday and Trevor was pleased. He went a half in 47 [seconds] and out in 59 and change and we were delighted the way he did it.
“He’s doing well,” he added. “We couldn’t ask for him to be any better. No excuses. He’s going in there in good shape, and he just has to be good enough.”
El Areeb, whose three-race win streak includes the James F. Lewis III Stakes Nov. 19 at Laurel, schooled in the starting gate Thursday morning and will train again Friday before leaving at 9 a.m. for the trip to New York.
“I don’t like shipping around. He’s very happy and very content training here at Laurel. He loves this track and he’s doing well over it, so if it’s not broke don’t fix it, right?” Lynch said. “Not just for me but for the owners and the whole family, Danielle and the boys and me, we’re very excited about him. We’ve never had one get this far or act like this. The owners are delighted, they spent the money and took a chance and trusted us to buy them a nice horse and it looks like we did OK.”
El Areeb’s win came over a muddy track in the one-mile Jerome, also run around two turns, and Lynch is looking forward to a fast track Saturday.
“My feeling is that this will be his preferred surface over a muddy track. I think he gets a little better hold of a fast track,” Lynch said. “Even Trevor said the first few jumps up there the last time he was just getting his feet under him trying to feel his way. Hopefully we should have a fast track and a good clean run and see where we go.”
Irish War Cry, Painter’s Rags Open Season This Weekend in Florida
Stakes winner Irish War Cry and impressive debut winner Painter’s Rags are set to open their 3-year-old campaigns this weekend at Gulfstream Park for Fair Hill, Md.-based trainer Graham Motion.
Unbeaten in two starts including the seven-furlong Marylander Dec. 31 at Laurel, Isabelle de Tomaso’s New Jersey homebred Irish War Cry will face Classic Empire, the 2-year-old male champion of 2016, and seven others in the $350,000 Lambholm South Holy Bull (G2) Saturday.
The chestnut Curlin colt gives up seasoning in the 1 1/16-mile Triple Crown prep to each of his rivals including multiple graded stakes winner Gunnevera and undefeated Fact Finding, who ran his record to 3-0 in Gulfstream’s Smooth Air Stakes Dec. 10.
Motion also considered the 1 1/16-mile Sam F. Davis (G3) Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs for Irish War Cry’s seasonal bow but opted to keep him closer to his winter home at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Boynton Beach.
“This is a big step up for him, stretching out and running against these kinds of horses,” Motion said. “I felt like both races were coming up very competitive and I couldn’t really see any advantage to waiting another week, to be honest. He’s doing well, and he’s there. It’s not all about Saturday. I realize it’s a big step for him.”
Irish War Cry debuted with a 4 ½-length romp Nov. 11 at Laurel before coming back seven weeks later with a gutsy nose victory over stakes winner O Dionysus in the Marylander. Both races came under jockey Feargal Lynch; Joel Rosario is named to ride in the Holy Bull.
“Certainly I thought he had some talent but I couldn’t have imagined he’d win the way he did first time out. Visually it was a very impressive win,” Motion said. “He was pretty sharp [in the Marylander] and he kind of surprised me how he came out running and I think he kind of surprised Feargal a little bit, but I thought he was very tenacious in the way he won. He was inexperienced and coming back in just his second start and I thought he was very game that day.”
Motion has several horses for de Tomaso and also trains 3-year-old filly Party Boat, winner of Gulfstream’s Wait a While Stakes in December, for de Tomaso’s sister, Hope Jones.
“Most of what she has, I have,” he said. “I’ve also had a lot of the family of Irish War Cry. It’s very exciting. It’s exciting for Isabelle. He’s a neat colt. Let’s hope he’s that good.”
Chadds Ford Stable’s Union Rags colt Painter’s Rags faces seven others in a competitive optional claiming allowance going 1 1/16 miles on Friday. Trevor McCarthy will be at Gulfstream to ride from Post 3.
“This was always the plan with him. We wanted to get him down and get him an allowance race and get him around two turns, so that’s where we’re at,” Motion said. “Him and Irish War Cry have pretty much been working together the last couple of months.
“He was a little bit sharp when I worked him the other day,” he added. “I’d love to see him settle like [his debut]. I’m not going to change anything with either one of these colts. We’re hopefully looking at the big picture and not just this weekend.”
Painter’s Rags came from off the pace to win his unveiling by a length going one mile on a muddy and sealed track Dec. 26 at Laurel. The runner-up, Curtis, returned to romp by 4 ½ lengths in a one-mile maiden special weight Jan. 10 at Parx.
“I don’t know that he came with expectations but I’ve always liked him. We got held up a little bit. He started late in the fall because he was quite a handful in the starting gate and it took us quite a while to get him over that,” Motion said. “Fortunately he seems to be over it. That’s the only reason he didn’t start sooner perhaps. But he’s always worked well. He’s a lovely big colt.”
Laurel Stakes Winners Tequilita, Ms Locust Point Meet in G2 Forward Gal
Tequilita and Ms Locust Point, each coming off stakes victories at Laurel Park, are among nine 3-year-old fillies entered in Saturday’s $200,000 Forward Gal (G2) at Gulfstream.
A homebred daughter of Union Rags trained by Michael Matz for his wife, Dorothy, Tequilita will be making her first start since a one-length victory in the six-furlong Smart Halo Nov. 19.
It was the second straight win for Tequilita following her seven-furlong maiden triumph at Keeneland in October. In her previous start, she ran second to subsequent Grade 1 winner Dancing Rags in a one-mile Laurel maiden event.
“She was kind of on the lead the whole way there and it was kind of not what we expected,” Matz said. “She had the one hole that day and she broke sharp and we just didn’t want to take anything away from her. It was kind of the situation that kind of got us beat that day.
“She’s done well. We gave her a little break and she’s worked nicely up to this point,” he added. “It’s a big jump in class so we’ll have to see how she handles it. She’s doing good right now. Kind of our goal is to stretch her out a little bit from last time. We hope that she’ll go two turns but she has enough speed that she can go short. It’s sort of a big jump so we’ll see where she fits in.”
In addition to having the horse for his wife, Matz also trained 2012 Fountain of Youth (G2) and Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags and Tequilita’s mare, Sangrita, winner of the 2006 Chilukki (G2).
“It’s nice. I trained the mare and I trained the stallion. There’s a little bit of both in there,” Matz said. “She looks a lot like her mother and hopefully she’s going to have enough stamina to go two turns. Hopefully she just has to build up to it.”
Jim Reichenberg, Bruno De Julio and Cash Is King’s Ms Locust Point is also riding a two-race win streak, having broken her maiden by 4 ¾ lengths Nov. 27 at Parx before her 4 ¼-length triumph in the seven-furlong Gin Talking Dec. 31 at Laurel.
Favored in each of her first three starts, the chestnut daughter of Grade 1 winner Dialed In drew Post 6 and will be ridden by Joel Rosario.
