Irish War Cry on Track for Wood

Isabelle de Tomaso's Irish War Cry (Curlin), looking to rebound from a seventh-place effort in the Mar. 4 GII Fountain of Youth S., tuned up for Saturday's GII Wood Memorial S. with a six-furlong breeze in 1:13.40 (1/3) at Fair Hill Training Center Sunday.

“I wanted him to have a good work,” reported trainer Graham Motion. “We had a lot of rain the last couple of days so that's why I put it off until today. The track was good this morning. He actually shipped back [from Florida] on Monday morning, so he got here Tuesday and he galloped since then. He seems to have had a very good week.”

Irish War Cry opened his career with three straight victories, including a 3 3/4-length tally in the Feb. 4 GII Lambholm South Holy Bull S. He suffered his first defeat after pressing a swift pace in the Fountain of Youth.

“To me I think it seemed like a perfect storm of a bounce off the Holy Bull and kind of a deep, cuppy track that he struggled with,” Motion said of the defeat. “That's the best case that I can give.”

Of the decision to skip Saturday's GI Florida Derby and instead point towards the Wood, Motion added, “I wanted to get him home and give him the extra week. I just didn't feel like I could run back in the Florida Derby off that performance. For me it was getting him home and getting him relaxed. The biggest factor was probably the extra week, to be honest. It's also running in a Grade II as opposed to a Grade I. That was a solid group and the winner looked very impressive, I thought.”

Also working towards the Wood Memorial, St. Elias Stable's Battalion Runner (Unbridled's Song) breezed a half-mile at Palm Beach Downs Sunday in :49 1/5.

“It was a good work for him and he had a nice gallop-out,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “It's six days out from the Wood, so we didn't want to overdo it. He's had a good, steady series of solid works so this is more of a maintenance type work before he ships north. He looked good and was moving well. It was a nice, relaxed work by himself and he seemed to come out of it well.”

The $700,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase graduated by a front-running 8 3/4 lengths going seven furlongs at Gulfstream in December and added a 1 1/4-length tally going 1 1/16 miles in Hallandale Feb. 3. He was scratched from the Florida Derby as the 3-1 second-choice on the morning line to avoid facing stablemate Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), co-owned by St. Elias.

“Part of the strategy was we were trying to keep him and Always Dreaming separated because of the common ownership,” confirmed Pletcher. “So it kind of came down to finalizing which race we were ultimately going to end up in. Based on the breeze this morning, we felt like the Wood made the most sense.”

Pletcher will also be represented in the Wood by Bonus Points (Majestic Warrior), who was second in the Jan. 2 GIII Jerome S. and is coming off a fourth-place effort in the Feb. 4 GIII Withers S.

“He's a consistent horse, he tries hard,” Pletcher said of the Three Diamonds Farm runner. “We're hoping that maybe with a more legitimate pace, he'll get a little better run at it. We need him to step up and improve a bit, but we feel like he's a horse that'll handle the distance and, with a little bit of pace setup, might be able to get a piece of it.”

 

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