Undefeated Stakes Winner Our Braintrust on Comeback Trail
Undefeated Stakes Winner Our Braintrust on Comeback Trail
Community Watch Breaks Maiden for Hall of Famer McGaughey
LAUREL, MD – Undefeated Our Braintrust, unraced since winning the Tremont Stakes June 8 at Belmont Park in his second start, continued working toward his return to competition for Laurel Park-based trainer and co-owner Cal Lynch.
The 2-year-old Maryland-bred son of Freud worked three furlongs in 36.80 seconds over Laurel’s main track Sunday morning, after going the same distance in 38 seconds Sept. 30 in his return to the work tab.
“It was just an easy three-eighths. It was his second work back and he worked in company with an older horse,” Lynch said. “He did it very easy and came back good, and we’re very excited. Hopefully everything stays together.”
Our Braintrust, co-owned by Stanton Smith Jr., debuted with a three-quarter-length maiden victory going 4 ½ furlongs May 3 at Laurel before stepping up to stakes company in the 5 ½-furlong Tremont. In that race, Our Braintrust sat just off the pace before being steered inside by Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano for a confident rally up the rail to win by the same margin in 1:04.41.
“He’s still growing and he’s still filling out,” Lynch said. “He’s just getting bigger and stronger so we’re just going to go slow. We’ll have races for him in the fall. We’re not in any hurry.”
Lynch is hoping to get a local prep before taking Our Braintrust back to New York for the six-furlong Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Series Dec. 16 at Aqueduct.
“He’s New York-sired so we’ll work backwards from there,” he said. “We’ll try to get something in him here before the end of November and have him ready.”
Community Watch Breaks Maiden for Hall of Famer McGaughey
Stuart S. Janney III’s homebred filly Community Watch, trailing by as many as 9 ¾ lengths after a half-mile, came with a steady run down the middle of the stretch to catch 68-1 long shot Sundrenched for her first career victory in Laurel’s opener Sunday.
With Forest Boyce aboard for Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, Community Watch ($13.20) ran one mile in 1:44.93 over a yielding Bowl Game turf course to win the $40,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies by 2 ½ lengths.
A daughter of Street Sense out of the Empire Maker mare Home Rule, Community Watch is a daughter and granddaughter of Classic winners. She finished fourth in her first start Sept. 8 after being unruly in the gate and a wide trip, also with Boyce.
Boyce remained patient when Community Watch broke slowly and was unhurried as Ask Stacy and Mandette dueled through fractions of :25.13, :51.02 and 1:17.56. Boyce swung outside in upper stretch and set her sights on the leader.
“She’s real nice, to make up that kind of ground on that kind of course,” Boyce said. “They just told me to try to get away from there and get position and make a run. She was a little naughty in the gate so we didn’t get away from there the best. At that point I decided to wait and make the one move and it worked out. I was a little nervous because we were pretty far back and on turf like this it’s hard to make up that kind of ground. I started asking her at the half-mile pole.”
