ELMONT, N.Y. – There has been a change of plans for Graydar and there will most likely be a change in the way handicappers perceive his chances in the Breeders’ Cup.
Graydar will run in the $1 million Dirt Mile on Friday at Santa Anita and not the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday as originally planned, trainer Todd Pletcher said Saturday.
Graydar, who has won 5 of 6 races, including the Grade 1 Donn in February, has only had one race since winning the Fair Grounds Handicap on March 30. Graydar, who had surgery to remove an ankle chip after that race, won the Grade 2 Kelso Invitational – a Win and You’re In race for the Dirt Mile – at Belmont on Sept. 28.
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Though Pletcher and Randy Gullatt, the manager of Twin Creeks Racing Stables, had hoped to use that race as a springboard to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Pletcher didn’t feel that race and his subsequent workouts were enough to have him ready to run 1 1/4 miles in the Classic. Graydar has never run beyond 1 1/8 miles.
“He’s a horse that doesn’t put a whole lot into his works, we just felt like with one prep race since March going a mile and a quarter wasn’t going to work out,” Pletcher said. “We needed another race to get to where we wanted to be.”
Graydar worked on Saturday over the Belmont training track, going four furlongs in 49.60 seconds in company with Vitoria Olimpica, who finished a neck in front of Graydar at the wire and who galloped out better than Graydar.
The defection of Graydar form the Classic leaves that race with a field of 12.
The decision to run in the Dirt Mile is a blow to the connections of Holy Lute, Easter Gift and Laugh Track, horses that remain on the preference list.
