|
|
Violette plotting three preps for Upstart
Most recently, Upstart finished third, a nose behind runner-up Carpe Diem, in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita. "It was a funny racetrack that day (at Santa Anita)," Violette said. "It was so speed-favoring that if you weren't 1-2 turning for home, you had no chance. We were a little bit back off of that and he still made a race of it. He's got to be top 10, probably top five two-year-olds in the country, and that's a great place to be." Violette gave Upstart a break following the cross-country trip from California and is looking forward to kicking off his three-year-old campaign at Gulfstream. "He actually had four weeks off and we didn't put tack on him until (November 29)," Violette said. "He hadn't done anything until then. He was turned out in the paddocks up at Palm Meadows. He'll jog for a little bit. I've tried to give him time to get three starts in before the Derby. It doesn't always work. Two would be OK, three would be ideal. "We'll see what happens. You have to get lucky. We'll see where we're ready and what the handicapping looks like, and we'll get his career started down here." Samraat won the first five starts of his career, three of them stakes, capped by Grade 3 wins in the Withers and Gotham over the winter at Aqueduct. Second to Wicked Strong in the TwinSpires.com Wood Memorial, the New York-bred son of Noble Causeway was fifth by less than five lengths in the Kentucky Derby, just a nose behind Wicked Strong in fourth. Violette skipped the Preakness and pointed the My Meadowview Farm homebred to the Belmont Stakes, where Samraat got squeezed at the start and made a short run to contention before flattening out and winding up sixth. He had surgery on July 25 to repair a fractured right shin injured while training for a start in Saratoga's Jim Dandy. "He's doing good," Violette said. "He's been jogging for about a month and he galloped for the first time (on November 29). He's terrific. It's a relief and it's also exciting because the three-year-olds were the best of the class this year. They were the first six finishers in the Breeders' Cup Classic. I think it's a stellar division, and he was certainly among the elite there. I'm quite happy with him." With no formal plan in place, Violette said he will let Samraat dictate when he is ready to get his four-year-old season under way. "There's no real hurry," the trainer said. "I could have had him back maybe 30 days earlier, but I didn't want to have him ready in January with kind of no place to go. February, March, we'll see how he's doing. We'll nominate for a bunch of spots and we'll see what the right starting point is." Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
 Send this article to a friend
|
|
