Horse Racing
Claire Novak 9y

Wise Dan's to get final BC work

Horse Racing

Trainer Charlie LoPresti said Oct. 11 he has yet to exactly pinpoint a date for the final pre-race work of Morton Fink's two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan leading up to the Nov. 1 Breeders' Cup Mile, though it could come Oct. 16 at Keeneland.

Last year Wise Dan breezed Oct. 18, a Friday, over the old Polytrack at Keeneland before shipping to Santa Anita Park Oct. 29, a Tuesday. Between those dates he had a strong blow-out down the lane on Keeneland's synthetic surface Oct. 26.

This year, weather may impact LoPresti's decision to breeze over the new dirt track or on the Keeneland turf course.

"I'm going to watch the weather next week, I'm not sure what I'm doing yet," LoPresti said. "Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday. Now it's a different deal because of the dirt and the rain. It looks like we might get rain Monday and Tuesday … so more than likely it might be on Thursday [Oct. 16]. But I've got to wait and see."

If the 7-year-old son of Wiseman's Ferry were to work on dirt, he'd go at 6 a.m. during his usual training time under exercise rider Damien Rock. A work over the turf course would have to be scheduled later in the morning.

"It's about working him and keeping him level, not about getting him tighter," LoPresti said. "I don't know if you could get him any tighter. He trains so hard, that's the thing about him."

Figuring out the logistics of the six-time Eclipse Award winner's bid for a third Breeders' Cup Mile victory seem to be LoPresti's only worry with Wise Dan these days. Undefeated in 2014 with four victories, three of them in grade I events, and having made a successful return from May 16 colic surgery. With wins in the Oct. 4 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland after the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga Race Course Aug. 31, the chestnut gelding is in top form.

"I just kind of watch how he's doing, how he's training, and I tell you what, he's training like a monster," LoPresti said. "He pretty near took Damien for a ride yesterday on the training track. He's on it right now, he's really on it. I don't think the Shadwell took a lot out of him. He only ran the last three-eighths of a mile, when you think about it. I don't think it gutted him at all, not the way he's acting, anyway."

Although Fink ruled out starting Wise Dan in the Breeders' Cup Classic, LoPresti still spoke of a return to dirt in the Nov. 28 Clark Handicap -- a race Wise Dan won in 2011 -- as a viable option should he emerge from the Mile in good order.

"But he's got to come out of that race good because I'm not going to sacrifice next year's campaign," LoPresti said.

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