Successful Dan targeting Woodward; My Miss Aurelia joins Pletcher

Successful Dan targeting Woodward; My Miss Aurelia joins

Pletcher

Morton Fink's homebred Successful Dan remains on target to make his next

start at in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward on August 31 at Saratoga, trainer

Charlie LoPresti said Wednesday.

The seven-year-old Successful Appeal gelding breezed a half-mile in :49 3/5

Tuesday morning. It was his first work since finishing a fast-closing second to

Cross Traffic in the Whitney Handicap on August 3.

"I'm very happy with him," LoPresti said. "I wanted him to go just as easy as

he can go, and (exercise rider) Damien (Rock) said he just dragged him around

there the whole way. He was well in hand. I didn't want a fast work. I didn't

need a fast work; he's fit enough now off of that last race.

"I just want to keep him ticking. He'll probably have another work in

between, and if everything goes right we'll run him in the Woodward. That's the

plan. We're here, so we're going to stay."

Older half-brother to reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan, who ran his win

streak to eight races in the Fourstardave Handicap last Saturday, Successful Dan

has shown no ill effects from the fall he took near the end of the path that

leads from the paddock to the main track prior to the Whitney.

"He had one little scrape on his hock," LoPresti said. "It was a scratch. It

didn't amount to a hill of beans. He's doing good. I've tried to figure out why

that happened and how it happened. I led Wise Dan out there the other day,

because I wanted to see what it was that caused that. I don't know. Something

spooked him, because he's never been that kind of horse."

LoPresti did not see Successful Dan fall after the gelding got his back legs

in a tangle and lost jockey Julien Leparoux, and the trainer has only seen one

replay of the incident.

"I don't want to watch it," he said. "I saw it one time and I don't care if I

ever see it again. It scared me."

My Miss Aurelia, the 2011 juvenile female champion, arrived in the barn of

new trainer Todd Pletcher Wednesday morning and is stationed in the stall

adjacent to his office.

Pletcher said he had no immediate plans for the four-year-old filly, who has

been in Ocala, Florida. on Barbara Banke's Stonestreet farm, which was purchased

last year by Banke from Vinery.

My Miss Aurelia has not raced since finishing third in the Grade 3 Azeri on

March 16, beaten by Tiz Miz Sue, who went on to win the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps

Handicap at Belmont Park.

My Miss Aurelia won the first six starts of her career, including Grade 1

victories in the Frizette, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and Cotillion. She

sustained her first setback when finishing a commendable second to Royal Delta

in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic.

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