Diamond 100 Racing Club, Amy Dunne, D P Racing and Patrick Biancone Racing's Diamond Oops arrived at Keeneland Monday morning following an overnight van ride from Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida for a run in Friday afternoon's $200,000 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2).
Monday's arrival marked the second trip to Kentucky in a month for Diamond Oops, who was last seen in the Commonwealth winning the TwinSpires Turf Sprint (G2) Presented by Sysco going 5½ furlongs on Sept. 4 at Churchill Downs. In his lone Keeneland start, Diamond Oops was second in last year's Shadwell Turf Mile (G1).
“He's a multipurpose horse,” said Andie Biancone, assistant to her father, Patrick Biancone. “I think he is better on the dirt.”
A two-time Grade 3 winner sprinting on the dirt, Diamond Oops worked a bullet half-mile in :47.85 at Palm Meadows on Friday. However, that performance was not the key to the gelding trying the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix going 6 furlongs on the dirt, a “Win and You're In” for the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
“My dad had planned on the Phoenix,” Biancone said of Diamond Oops, who also was nominated to this weekend's Shadwell Turf Mile and Woodford (G2) Presented by TVG. Florent Geroux will have the mount.
Diamond Oops was accompanied on the van by a pony but not by Sole Volante, the 11th-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve who is co-owned by Andie Biancone.
“My dad wanted to give him more time (after the Derby),” Biancone said of Sole Volante, who was nominated to the Shadwell Turf Mile. “He is looking at bringing him up for an undercard race on Breeders' Cup weekend (Nov. 6-7).”
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