Juddmonte Farms' Hofburg (Tapit) completed his serious preparations for the GI Kentucky Derby with a four-furlong breeze in company in :48.20 at Churchill Downs Sunday morning–the lone Derby contender to drill at the Louisville oval Sunday. Meanwhile, Solomini (Curlin) worked six furlongs in 1:14.60 and Instilled Regard (Arch) worked five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Santa Anita.
Working under exercise rider Penny Gardiner, Hofburg broke off behind workmate Villamay (Animal Kingdom), a debut winner at Tampa Bay for Juddmonte and trainer Bill Mott last month, and clicked off splits of :13.20, :24.60 and :36.20, according to Churchill Downs clockers, with gallop-out times of 1:01.20 for five-eighths and 1:14.80 for six furlongs.
“He looked like he went off well and he joined his company a little bit early–the company was maybe going a little slow the first eighth of a mile–but he looked smooth as silk coming by me,” Mott said. “Approaching the wire he looked really good, switched leads, went into the turn and galloped out well around the turn.”
Mott continued, “He has a lot of energy. That's not something we made him do, we just let him do it. We wanted him to work out pretty good around the turn and keep going and just have a steady gallop-out, which is what he did and he does that as well as anything.”
Back at Santa Anita, Solomini–owned by Zayat Stables and the Coolmore partners–worked in company, with Solomini maintaining an advantage on the inside of workmate Once On Whiskey (Bodemeister). Santa Anita clockers recorded gallop-out times of 1:28.20 for seven-eighths and one mile in 1:42.80.
“He worked really well,” Zayat Stables racing manager Justin Zayat said afterwards. “Bob told me he was happy with him and Martin really liked the work, which is always a good sign. The plan was to not do anything too stressful with him. Bob was just letting him stretch his legs a little bit.”
Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer was similarly pleased with Instilled Regard's work.
“It was a very good move for my horse,” he said. “Very good. Drayden was up and he's worked him before for me and we gave him a target to run at. He ran him down and looked good doing it.”
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