Corniche | Horse Racing Free Tips

With “No Real Soft Spots to Land,” Corniche Returns

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Nearly nine months after his last race, champion and 'TDN Rising Star' Corniche (Quality Road) will return to competition Sunday, starting the late-developing next chapter in his thus-far unbeaten career with a big test in the GII Amsterdam S.

Corniche will again be carrying the white and red colors of his owner, Speedway Stables, the partnership of Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner. Beyond that, pretty much everything else has changed since his 1 3/4-length victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 5 at Del Mar. Following the colt's long lay-up at WinStar Training Center, Fluor and Weiner announced May 2 that Corniche was being transferred from trainer Bob Baffert to Todd Pletcher. The switch was made, the co-owners said, because Baffert was serving a 90-day suspension and would be unable to prepare Corniche for a hoped-for start in June in advance of the big summer races for 3-year-olds, the GI Haskell S. and the GI Runhappy Travers S.

Starting with a three-furlong breeze June 10 at Belmont Park, Corniche has worked seven times for Pletcher. Under Luis Saez, who replaces Mike Smith, Corniche will make his 3-year-old debut in the 6 1/2-furlong Amsterdam. He drew post seven in the nine-horse field.

Pletcher has looked at videos of Corniche's breezes for Baffert and said he appears to be training the same.

“He's had a consistent work program for us,” Pletcher said. “He's not missed a beat since he came in and so, for a horse like that, that's kind of run through his conditions, there's no real soft spots to land coming back. We're starting back in a salty graded stake and hope he can continue to run as well as he has.”

Fluor and Weiner purchased the colt out of the Najran mare Wasted Tears for $1.5 million at the 2021 OBS April 2-year-old sale and turned him over to Baffert. Leading at every point, Corniche reeled off victories in a maiden at Del Mar, the GI American Pharoah S. at Santa Anita and the Juvenile back at Del Mar. Those three performances earned him the Eclipse Award as the champion 2-year-old male.

Corniche stayed on the farm and never emerged as a Triple Crown prospect. He recorded his first breeze at WinStar Apr. 15.

Corniche (inside) recently worked in company with Nest, winner of the July 23 GI Coaching Club American Oaks | Sarah Andrew

Last year, Pletcher picked up another Baffert trainee, the gifted 'TDN Rising Star' Life Is Good (Into Mischief), who has won seven of nine starts and is headed to the GI Whitney S. Aug. 6. Life Is Good debuted for Pletcher in the GI H. Allen Jerkens S., where he finished second by a neck to Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music). Pletcher said that Corniche might move on to the seven-furlong Jerkens Aug. 27.

“Could be, based on how this race goes,” he said. “That would be a logical next step should this go well.”

While Pletcher did not compare Corniche to Life is Good, he did note a link to another standout he handled, who began his career with another trainer.

“He reminds me more of his stallion Quality Road. He resembles Quality Road a bit,” Pletcher said. “This was where Quality Road made his first start for us, was in the Amsterdam. He set a track record that still stands.”

Quality Road, bred and owned by Edward P. Evans, had quarter crack issues while in the care of Jimmy Jerkens in 2009 and was subsequently moved to Pletcher.

The Amsterdam often is used as a prep for the Jerkens and Pletcher said the timing and the distance are the right combination for Corniche.

“He's proven versatile enough to win sprinting and going long,” Pletcher said. “We needed a place to come back and obviously the Curlin S. or the GII Jim Dandy S. at a mile and an eighth didn't really make sense. We felt like this race made the most sense.”

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Pletcher and Brown Stars Highlight Saratoga Worktab

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown were both quite busy Saturday morning at Saratoga, working some of their respective stables' top stars. GI Belmont S. runner-up Nest (Curlin) turned in her final breeze Saturday morning before her rematch with Secret Oath (Arrogate) July 23 in the GI Coaching Club American Oaks.

Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher said the filly “worked really well” after she covered five furlongs in company with champion Corniche (Quality Road) in 1:01.44 under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. on the main track.

Secret Oath and Nest ran one-two in the GI Kentucky Oaks. They then jumped into the Triple Crown series with Secret Oath finishing fourth in the GI Preakness S. and Nest running second to stablemate Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo) in the Belmont. Secret Oath and Nest could also meet in the GI Alabama Aug. 20.

Nest is a member of Pletcher's battalion of runners headed to graded stakes at Saratoga. Life is Good (Into Mischief) breezed a half-mile in :49.49 on July 15 for the GI Whitney S. Aug. 6. Americanrevolution (Constitution), runner-up in the GII Stephen Foster, and Dynamic One (Union Rags), winner of the GII Suburban, are on course for the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup Sept. 3.

Pletcher said that Charge It (Tapit) will train up to the GI Runhappy Travers Aug. 27. In his first start since a 17th-place finish in the GI Kentucky Derby, the Whisper Hill Farm homebred crushed his competition in the GIII Dwyer S. July 2 at Belmont Park, winning by 23 lengths.

“It's the first time I've ever watched a race at Belmont and actually looked at that Secretariat pole as they were coming to the finish line,” Pletcher said. “It was like, 'wow'. He's a horse that we've thought a lot of from the beginning. He showed he's still a little green in the Florida Derby and displaced his palate in the Kentucky Derby, so I think we're starting now to get it all together. From a talent perspective, he is as good as good as anyone in the crop, if he can just continue to mature.”

Jeff Drown's Zandon (Upstart) worked a half-mile in :49.69 Saturday in preparation for his scheduled start in the GII Jim Dandy July 30.

The Jim Dandy, the local prep for the Travers, will be Zandon's first race following his third-place finish in the GI Kentucky Derby May 7.

Meanwhile, Brown's two other graded stakes-winning 3-year-old colts, GI Preakness S. star Early Voting (Gun Runner) and the unbeaten Jack Christopher (Munnings) worked at Belmont Park. Jack Christopher is headed to the GI Haskell Invitational S. next weekend at Monmouth Park. Brown has not yet made the call on whether Early Voting will go in the Haskell or the Jim Dandy.

“I'll decide in the morning,” Brown said. “I'll see how all the horses come out before I make a decision.”

Brown was pleased with the way Zandon handled the breeze.

“The horse worked super,” he said.

Zandon's work under veteran exercise rider Kriss Bon was his first at Saratoga this summer and satisfied a couple of goals.

“Just to get him to stretch his legs,” Brown said. “He's been working along down at Belmont. I freshened him up after the Derby. I'm really pleased with him. He put some weight on. He really looks better than ever right now. I have just given him a little bit of a breather from the racing end of it anyway. Our plan was just to get him over the track and get him a good feel for it and he couldn't have went any better.”

Despite his strong performance in the Derby, Zandon was never a possibility for the Belmont because Brown said he doesn't consider him a mile and a half horse. But Brown is confident that he will be sharp off a nearly three-month break between races.

“Just knowing the horse, he'll run good, fresh,” Brown said. “I can just see it in his training. The way he's matured, the way he's worked gives me a lot of confidence that he will be ready to go.

Early Voting worked four furlongs in :49.25 and Jack Christopher was timed in :49.80 for the same distance.

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Corniche Moved to Pletcher Barn

Last year's champion 2-year-old colt Corniche (Quality Road) has been moved to trainer Todd Pletcher's barn from suspended conditioner Bob Baffert's outfit, his owners Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner of Speedway Stable said in a joint statement Monday. Baffert is currently serving a 90-day suspension handed down by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission that began Apr. 4 and runs through July 2.

“Since Corniche's previous trainer, Bob Baffert, cannot begin training until the first week in July and, after a discussion with Bob, we felt that for Corniche to be ready to compete in June, it is necessary that we make a trainer change at this time,” Fluor said. “To that end, Todd Pletcher will commence training Corniche in early May. K.C. and I are most appreciative of Bob's brilliant handling of Corniche's 2-year-old campaign and ultimately providing Speedway Stables with its first Breeders Cup winner and Eclipse Award champion.”

Named a 'TDN Rising Star' off a dazzling debut romp last summer at Del Mar, Corniche legitimized that distinction with subsequent victories in the GI American Pharoah S. and GI Breeders' Cup Classic to lock up his Eclipse Award. He has yet to start as a 3-year-old and has been laid up at WinStar, where he recorded a pair of workouts in the past few weeks, going three furlongs in :36.80 (2/5) Apr. 15 and a half-mile in :48.94 (2/3) Apr. 23. The $1.5-million OBS April buy will be sent straight to Pletcher at the conclusion of his time at WinStar.

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Corniche Nearing Return

He has yet to run this year, which has turned GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road) into the forgotten horse in the 3-year-old male division. That, however, may be about to change. Corniche has had two recent works at WinStar Farm and, according to Marette Farrel, an advisor to owners K.C. Weiner and Peter Fluor, the colt will return to the racetrack within a couple of weeks.

“His last work at WinStar [four furlongs in :48.94 last Saturday], they said that it was an 'A' work,” Farrel said. “He couldn't have been more impressive.”

Corniche, a $1.5-million purchase at the 2021 OBS Spring Sale, debuted Sept. 4 for trainer Bob Baffert, breaking his maiden by 4 1/4 lengths. Up next was a 3 1/4-length win in the GI American Pharoah and then a 1 3/4-length victory in the Breeders' Cup. Named 2-year-old male champion, Corniche was the early favorite for the GI Kentucky Derby and his connections began to plot a course to get him to Churchill Downs. But there was a problem. Corniche was not flourishing.

“He really only got 30 days off,” Farrel said. “He didn't come to WinStar until the beginning of December. The first week of January, he started jogging and then he started galloping. It was then that he didn't bloom like he should have.”

Farrel said there were rumors that Corniche had suffered some kind of physical setback, but says that was never the case. But he wasn't showing the connections what they wanted to see. With the calendar entering mid-March and with Corniche still not having had a workout, a decision had to be made. Press on for the Derby or come up with an alternate plan?

“He was a little slow to come around physically and he was still holding on to his winter coat,” Farrel said. “Peter and K.C. had a choice to make in March. Do you push the horse and rush him to the Derby or do you let the horse come back naturally in his own time and in his own way? They are very successful businessmen and they understand big picture things. They said, 'We want to do right by the horse.' Let him tell us what he wants to do and when he wants to do it. I applaud Peter and K.C. for taking what is, in my opinion, the right road.”

But that meant giving up on any chance to win the Kentucky Derby.

“There hasn't been any frustration,” Farrel said. “They took the horsemen's path and did the right thing by the horse. They weren't shortsighted and said, 'Let's go for it, let's take a chance.' If they did that they might not have had any horse left after running him in the Derby.”

Corniche's first published workout of the year came on Apr. 15 when he breezed three furlongs in :36.80 at WinStar. It was exactly what his team had been looking for, a sign that he was finally coming around. After one or two more works at WinStar, the next step for Corniche will be to return to the track and continue to work toward his first start of the year. The problem with that is that his return will come while Baffert is serving a 90-day suspension for the betamethasone positive he was hit with in last year's Kentucky Derby. That opens up the possibility that Corniche will be turned over to a new trainer. Farrel said the owners have yet to reach a decision concerning who will get the horse.

Farrel said the main goals will be the GI Haskell S. and the GI Travers S. and she is confident Corniche will be ready by then and will return to top form. The Derby and the entire Triple Crown may be out, but Corniche may still make something out of what so far has been a lost year.

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