Saratoga's Grade 1 Travers Stakes on Aug. 26 could shape up to pit a pair of 3-year-old classic winners against one another. Both Mage, winner of the Kentucky Derby, and Arcangelo, winner of the Belmont Stakes, had their first serious works after brief layoffs earlier this week, according to the Daily Racing Form.
Mage breezed July 1 for the second time since finishing third in the G1 Preakness, but it was the colt's first serious drill: he worked five furlongs in 1:00.60 at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky. A week earlier, the Gustavo Delgado-trained son of Good Magic had covered the same distance in 1:07.20.
“The first work was just something to get him loping along, jogging and galloping. It wasn't a true work,” co-owner Ramiro Restrepo told DRF. “The Travers has been our number one goal since the Preakness was over and that's been our mindset ever since. To find the optimum way to get him to run back to that mile and one-quarter Derby race in the Travers.”
Meanwhile, Arcangelo covered five furlongs in a snappy :58.49 on July 5 at Saratoga. DRF reports that the son of Arrogate galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.28 and seven in 1:26.00.
“It was his first work back, the track was very snappy, and the time was irrelevant,” trainer Jena Antonucci told DRF. “He needed to get out there and stretch his legs and get a nice work underneath after being off since the Belmont, and that's exactly what he did.”
Antonucci said she had not decided whether Arcangelo might have a prep race before starting in the Travers, the team's primary goal.
Read more at the Daily Racing Form.
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