Shackleford clocks five furlongs for Travers

Preakness S. (G1) winner

SHACKLEFORD

(Forestry) readied for next Saturday's $1 million Travers S. (G1) by taking a five-furlong

spin in 1:00 4/5, breezing, over Saratoga's fast main track with jockey Jesus Castanon

aboard. The move was the seventh fastest of 37 workouts at the distance on

Saturday's worktab.

"He worked pretty good as I was expecting," said Castanon, who was

aboard for the Preakness and has the return mount for the Travers. "He has been feeling pretty excited

every time I take him to the track and he did it pretty good. He has really relaxed a lot better."

Shackleford was caught in fractions of :36 1/5 and 1:00 4/5, before galloping

out six furlongs in 1:14 2/5.

"He really likes this place a lot," Castanon added. "I take

him out there every morning and take my time and let him do whatever he wants to

do and he just goes out there and does his thing. He's ready."

Trainer Dale Romans was quick to praise the work from his sophomore.

"I thought it went perfect today," the conditioner said. "We just wanted him to break off nice and

easy and finish strong. He finished great and galloped out really good. I

couldn't be happier with the way he did it.

"The track has been a bit different this year than in years past but this

horse has seemed to really like it. Ever since he's been here he has gotten over

it in good shape and we did a lot with him last week to make sure he's fit

enough for this track and I'm glad we did because today he looked like he

skipped around there.

"He finished very strong and I haven't seen that in a lot of my horses

working here. It seems like down the stretch has been a little bit slower than

the backside to me. We wanted him to ease off and finish good and that's exactly

what he did. He got a nice sharp work, he finished strong and galloped out

around the turn really well."

Shackleford will enter the Mid-Summer Derby off the July 31 Haskell

Invitational (G1), where he just missed by a neck to winner and fellow Travers

hopeful Coil (Point Given)

on the wire. Prior to that, the chestnut sandwiched his Preakness victory

between a fourth in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and a fifth in the Belmont S. (G1).

"He's seemed to improve after every race that he's run; he just keeps getting

better," Romans said. "He's one of the few horses that I've ever had that the more work he does

the better he gets. He came out of the Haskell in great shape. We're going to be

even weight with Coil and we'll see what happens.

"He is improving. He won the Preakness but he sure seems like he is an

improving horse to me. The more he does the better he gets. We've been training

him hard; he's been running hard, and he just continues to improve. He's very

happy up here."

With Saturday's work now under his girth, Shackleford will get a few days

worth of downtime.

"We're going to take it easy this week and probably give him two days off

after this work and take it easy," Romans explained. "School in the paddock, school in the gate,

probably jog one day and gallop into the race.

"He's not going to get any more fit than he is right now. All the big work is

done, we just have to make sure he goes into the race happy. He is professional and very smart. He knows what he is out there to do and

knows he is the king of the barn. Everybody is coming to visit him. And he is

living up to it."