Pletcher Mulls Options for Stanford

Stanford | A. Coglianese

Stonestreet Stables, Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's Stanford (Malibu Moon) was entered for Friday's GIII Pimlico Special, but no decision has been made about whether the winner of the Apr. 23 GII Charles Town Classic will participate, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday. The bay, who finished second in both the Feb. 6 GIII Fred Hooper S. and Mar. 5 GII Gulfstream Park H. to begin his season, drew post two in a field of eight entrants for the $300,000 event.

“Since it was a five-day entry we felt like we were best suited to enter because the horse is doing very well–buying time to make that decision,” Pletcher said. “One of the things we consider is that he's run well back in three weeks before. He was second to Materiality [last year] in the Islamorada and ran very well back in the [GII] Louisiana Derby three weeks later. That's one of the discussions we'll have this week.”

Stanford was on the cusp of notching his first graded stakes win for much of his career prior to last month, having run second, beaten a neck by International Star (Fusaichi Pegasus), in the 2015 Louisiana Derby. The colt chased stablemates Tommy Macho (Macho Uno) and Blofeld (Quality Road) home in his stakes tries at Gulfstream prior to breaking through with a two-length score in the lucrative Charles Town Classic.

“He's knocked on the door several times but that was his first [graded stakes win],” the trainer continued. “Needless to say, it was exciting to win a $1.25-million race. He's a very good-looking son of Malibu Moon. He's been a consistent performer. He's run well at multiple distances. I think he's earned a place in a stallion barn somewhere, but obviously we'd like to pick it up another step.”

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