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Pletcher 'very pleased' with Dreaming of Julia ahead of Mother Goose Stonestreet Stables' Dreaming of Julia stood out on a busy Sunday worktab for trainer Todd Pletcher, breezing a half-mile over the fast Belmont Park training track in :49 ahead of Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes going 1 1/16 miles. "Very good," Pletcher said of the work. "She's a very consistent work horse and I'm very pleased with the way she's coming into the race." Dreaming of Julia, who earlier this year ran off to a 21 3/4-length victory in the Gulfstream Park Oaks, exits a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks, a race in which she was jostled considerably at the start. "I think it greatly affected her," Pletcher stated. "In addition to that, she kind of got back into a position going into the far turn and had to lose her momentum again. I think the combination of those two things were very costly. She's probably of the size that getting bumped in at the start like that would take her wind away a little bit. It was a pretty severe bump." Pletcher sent out a trio of other sophomore stakes fillies for half-mile works over Belmont's training track Sunday morning, with Kentucky Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar covering the distance in :49 2/5 for an anticipated start the Grade 1, $300,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 20. Stablemate and multiple Grade 2 queen Kauai Katie got four furlongs in :48 2/5 in advance of the Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride sprinting seven furlongs at Belmont on June 29. Fusaichiswonderful, a Group 2 victress in Puerto Rico, is also under consideration for the Victory Ride. A half-length runner-up in the Eight Belles last out, she breezing a half-mile in :49 2/5. Among other stakes horses on the training track worktab for Pletcher were Battier and Jack Milton. The former, winner of the Fit to Fight Stakes and third in the Gygistar in his past two, covered four panels in :50 2/5 in advance of a likely start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Dwyer on July 6 at Belmont. Transylvania scorer and Penn Mile third Jack Milton, who was caught in :48 2/5, is being pointed toward the Grade 2, $500,000 Virginia Derby on July 13 at Colonial Downs. In other Mother Goose news: Toasting is among the fillies who could line up to face Dreaming of Julia in the 8 1/2-furlong Mother Goose. Third last out in the Black-Eyed Susan on May 17 at Pimlico, the West Point Thoroughbreds representative owns an optional claiming victory at the Mother Goose distance on February 15 at Gulfstream Park. "We'll see how she trains the next few days; it looks like we're headed in that direction," trainer Tom Albertrani remarked. "She ran a good race (in the Black-Eyed Susan), she was a good third. It looked like the blinkers helped a little bit and put her a little closer into the race, and she seems to have bounced back OK." Juddmonte Farms' Close Hatches, second in the Acorn on Memorial Day at Belmont, breezed Sunday for an expected start in the Mother Goose, covering a half-mile over the fast main track in :50 2/5 for trainer Bill Mott. The dark bay miss easily captured the Gazelle over Princess of Sylmar before falling short to that rival when a subpar seventh in the Kentucky Oaks two back. Among others under consideration for the Mother Goose, according to NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes are, Cue the Moon, Marathon Lady, Plenty O'Toole and Carnival Court. Grade 2-placed Cue the Moon, fourth most recently in the Acorn, sped a bullet five furlongs over Saratoga's fast Oklahoma training track on Saturday in 1:01. Black-Eyed Susan runner-up Marathon Lady got the same distance on Churchill Downs' fast dirt Saturday in 1:01 3/5. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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