GII Remsen S. victor Mohaymen (Tapit) exited his victory well, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
“That was big,” McLaughlin said Moyhaymen's run Saturday. “[Jockey] Junior [Alvarado] had worked him behind horses. You never know but you need to be ready for it. I think it helped a lot, for jockey and horse, because [Alvarado] was confident that he'd handle it. It was great. It was a mile and an eighth and he finished strong. He's a really nice horse.”
The undefeated juvenile has 10 points on the Kentucky Derby trail and has already shipped south to join McLaughlin's Florida string at Palm Meadows Training Center for the winter, where he will join fellow 2-year-old Annual Report (Harlan's Holiday). The Godolphin colorbearer was fifth in Saturday's sloppy GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. at Churchill.
“We went to Churchill with Annual Report to see how he'd like the track, but we can't learn anything from that,” McLaughlin explained. “It was under water, there was so much rain. He was wide and didn't get beat that bad, but [jockey] Joe Bravo rode him and said he kept slipping, because he would go and stop. It was kind of a funny race, we'll just draw a line through it.”
The conditioner also said that the lightly-raced Godlophin homebred Marking (Bernardini), who was scratched from Saturday's GI Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, will aim for a start in the GI Malibu S. Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.
“[We scratched] because he drew the one hole and it was a lot for him to fight off,” he said. “I think we did the right thing; he's only run twice, he's just a 3-year-old. We'll go to the Malibu in California, it's for straight 3-year-olds at seven-eighths.”
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