Book'em Danno (Bucchero), the reigning champion male sprinter and three-time New Jersey-bred Horse of the Year, blew out three furlongs from the gate in :37 flat this morning over the Monmouth Park dirt in preparation for next Saturday's GI Forego S. at Saratoga Race Course. The seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in October at Keeneland.
Trained by Derek Ryan for Atlantic Six Racing, the 5-year-old was piloted through the breeze by Jose Ferrer as his regular and returning pilot Paco Lopez was slated to ride 11 races at Colonial Downs.
“Super work and came out of it great. He's good to go,” Ryan said.
Entries for the Forego will be taken on Sunday.
The popular gelding successfully defended his GIII True North S. title earlier this summer here and prepared for his Forego title defense with a 1 1/4-length score in the six-furlong Mr. Prospector S. on July 17 at Monmouth.
“He's doing even better this year,” Ryan said. “We gave him that race at Monmouth, the guys (Atlantic Six Racing) are local. The plan is to get him to the Breeders' Cup (Sprint), so I didn't want to do the three races at Saratoga this year. We want him to be ready for Keeneland.”
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