Chiefswood Stables' Weyburn, winner of the one-mile Grade 3 Gotham in March at Aqueduct Racetrack, breezed seven furlongs in 1:31.73 Friday on the Belmont training track in preparation for a start in next Saturday's nine-furlong Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx.
Trained by Jimmy Jerkens, Friday's breeze followed up on a bullet five-eighths in 59.63 last Friday on the training track.
“He did well. We just wanted to give him a little stamina today,” Jerkens said. “He worked really fast last week and we didn't want to do that again. I was happy with how he did it.”
The Ontario homebred son of Pioneerof the Nile finished fourth in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Wood Memorial in April at the Big A and followed two months later with a close second to Grade 1 Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun in the 1 1/16-mile Pegasus on June 13 at Monmouth.
Last out, the dark bay colt tracked the pace from third in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Jim Dandy on July 31 at the Spa, but failed to make up ground in the stretch run finishing fourth.
Jerkens said Weyburn, a resurgent Gotham winner under Trevor McCarthy off a three-month layoff, is at his best racing fresh.
“He's got a lot of talent. He's just a little quirky,” Jerkens said. “His two best races – the Gotham and the Pegasus – he had two to three months between starts.”
Paco Lopez will pilot the quirky colt for the first time and Jerkens said the veteran rider will need to keep Weyburn to task.
“He wants to be forwardly placed and then you have to get after him. He'll spit the bit after he's run a long ways and you have to try and beat him to the punch a little bit,” Jerkens said. “Trevor kept riding him the whole time in the Gotham and he came back on. He can be stubborn switching to his outside lead but when he does, he comes back on again.”
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