Flat Out drills on turf as Dickey plots path to Donn

Trainer Charles "Scooter" Dickey sent Flat Out to the firm Gulfstream Park

turf course Sunday morning for a five-furlong workout, which the Grade 1 Jockey

Club Gold Cup winner completed in 1:00.35 under jockey Alex Solis.

"He worked good. I don't know how that compares to whom else worked, but I

was pleased with it," said Dickey, whose six-year-old registered the fastest of

three workouts at the distance on turf.

"Now we're going to have a meeting and decide if we're going to run him on

the turf or dirt before the Donn."

The two most likely races in which Flat Out will prep for the February 11

Grade 1 Donn Handicap are the Grade 3 Fort Lauderdale Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile race

on turf January 14, or the Florida Sunshine Millions Classic, a 1 1/8-mile race

on dirt January 28.

Flat Out has never run on turf in his 14-race career, but Sunday's workout on

grass was not his first.

"We worked him at Churchill Downs to see if we were going to run him in the

(Grade 1 Stephen) Foster or the (Grade 2) Firecracker," Dickey said, referring

to a test spin last June 28. "He worked really good, but we ran in the Foster."

Flat Out finished sixth in the Stephen Foster before putting his chronic foot

problems behind him and establishing himself as one of the top handicap horses

on the East Coast with victories in the Grade 2 Suburban Handicap and Jockey

Club Gold Cup and runner-up finishes in the Grade 1 Whitney and Grade 1

Woodward.

Fifth in the Breeders' Cup Classic two starts back, Flat Out closed out 2011

with a third in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill on November 25.