Julie Gilbert and Aaron Sones' graded-stakes placed Ethereal Road breezed a half-mile from the gate in :49.72 Saturday on the Oklahoma training track in company with unraced 2-year-old Track Mate.
NYRA clockers caught Ethereal Road through fractions of :26 flat and out five-furlongs in 1:02.80.
Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Ethereal Road, a sophomore son of Quality Road, remains under consideration for either the $600,000 Jim Dandy (G2), a nine-furlong test for sophomores on July 30 or the restricted $135,000 Curlin Stakes also at nine furlongs on July 29.
Lukas said he was pleased with Saturday's effort which followed an abbreviated breeze last Friday when Ethereal Road bolted to the outside rail through the turn and was pulled up.
“We worked him out of the gate just to sharpen him up a little bit and find out where we're at,” Lukas said. “I was trying to get a little better reading on him. His effort was very good today. He went in :49 and change and he actually could have been better than that. I worked him with a 2-year-old colt and he kind of waited. It was a good work.”
Ethereal Road finished a close second to Un Ojo in the Rebel (G2) in February at Oaklawn ahead of two starts at Keeneland, finishing seventh in the Blue Grass (G1) on April 9 and fourth in the Lexington (G3) one week later.
He became a part of Kentucky Derby (G1) lore as the horse that scratched from the “Run for the Roses” allowing 80-1 upset winner Rich Strike to make the field.
Ethereal Road rallied to an emphatic 4 3/4-length score in the Sir Barton on May 21 at Pimlico and came back one month later to finish a sixth in the Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown.
“It was a step in the right direction,” said Lukas of Saturday's breeze. “I'm going to wait and see how he is over the next day or so and maybe try the Jim Dandy. The Curlin is another option.”
Track Mate, a Calumet Farm homebred colt, is by Union Rags out of the A.P. Indy mare Teammate. The mare is a half sibling to multiple graded stakes winners War Front, who is a prominent Central Kentucky sire standing at Claiborne Farm in Paris, and Ecclesiastic.
The post Lukas Sharpens Ethereal Road ‘A Little Bit’ With Gate Work, Jim Dandy Or Curlin Stakes Possible appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
