Connect Cutting Back for Cigar Mile

Connect | Horsephotos

Connect (Curlin), impressive winner of the GII Pennsylvania Derby in his most recent trip to the post Sept. 24, is set to cut back in distance for next Saturday's GI Cigar Mile H. and breezed five-eighths of a mile in 1:00.20 Saturday morning at Belmont, second-fastest work of the morning behind Mo Town (Uncle Mo).

“He went excellent,” said trainer Chad Brown. “The horse has been working exceptionally well. He's a very talented horse and he's in great form right now.”

Third in his racetrack debut at Aqueduct last December, the $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling commenced a three-race winning skein, capped by a one-length defeat of stablemate and 'TDN Rising Star' Gift Box (Twirling Candy) in the race named for his sire at Saratoga July 29. Connect was a distant sixth in the GI Travers S. before bouncing back at Parx.

Brown sees no issue with the one-turn mile trip of the Cigar.

“He's fine to cut back,” he said. “He won on Belmont Day in an allowance race going one turn [mile and a sixteenth] and he looked good doing it, so I don't think the move to one turn will bother him.”

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