Awesome Banner to Remain Sprinting in Swale

Awesome Banner | Lauren King

Awesome Banner (Awesome of Course), undefeated in two career starts including a 4 3/4-length romp in the GIII Hutcheson S. at Gulfstream Park Jan. 2, will remain around one turn when he contests the seven-furlong GIII Swale S. Jan. 30. Trainer Stanley Gold and owner Fred Brei of Jacks or Better Farm had also considered stretching out the homebred colt for the GII Holy Bull S. the same afternoon.

“He's sprinted; he's fresh; he's been trained to sprint. Why would I want to stretch him out now?,” Gold said. “To go into the Holy Bull wouldn't make any sense, so he'll go in the Swale. He'll run the seven-eighths, and he'd probably be fit to run two turns. It seems like the right thing to do.”

Awesome Banner turned in a spectacular debut performance in Hallandale last June, wiring the field by 9 3/4 lengths while establishing a new track record of :51.07 for the 4 1/2 panels over the main track. The Florida-bred underwent surgery to remove a chip from a knee and was sidelined thereafter.

Gold remains confident that his charge will eventually handle a distance of ground.

“Will he go two-turns? Yes, he'll go a mile-and-a-sixteenth. Will he go a mile-and-a-quarter? Is he a Derby horse? Who knows?” Gold opined. “That'd be nice, but I'm not even going to think about it. I'm going to think about the Swale. The Swale isn't going to be easy. He'll run in the Swale and we'll go from there.”

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.

Copy Article Link

X

Never miss another story from the TDN

Click Here to sign up for a free subscription.