Paradise Farms Corp. and David Staudacher's Barese drilled five-furlongs Saturday in his final work for the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, a 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifier on April 9 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
A son of Laoban, Barese covered the five-eighths over the training track at Belmont Park in 1:03.10. The work came one week after a sharp drill in 59.98 seconds for the same distance.
Though he was not aboard for Barese's most recent works, jockey Dylan Davis said he has kept up with trainer Mike Maker's assistant Nelson Donis on the colt's efforts in the mornings.
“Nelson said he's been training well. I'm really excited for the race,” said Davis “I think he'll be competitive and handle the distance. We'll see what happens.”
Barese has put together a perfect resume from three starts, beginning with a debut maiden special weight victory sprinting five furlongs at Belmont in May.
He was away from the races for eight months before he returned in the Rego Park at the Big A on Jan. 9, stretching out to 6 1/2 furlongs to face winners for the first time. Barese made easy work of his eight opponents, charging down the center of the lane under regular rider Dylan Davis to take command in the stretch and win by 2 3/4 lengths.
The bay colt saw more ground in his next outing, taking on the one-turn mile Gander and a field that included impressive maiden winner Bold Journey, a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Americanrevolution. Barese once again stalked the pace under Davis and had to work a bit harder down the stretch to take command from pacesetter Bold Journey. Under strong urging, Barese took charge just past the sixteenth pole and pulled away to win by 1 1/4 lengths.
Davis, 27, has now ridden Barese to two stakes victories and will be aboard once again in the Wood Memorial, a race he has contested twice before. His two previous finishes were a fifth aboard Heartfullofstars in 2018 and a seventh aboard Hoffa's Union in 2019.
Should Barese earn enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, Davis could be on his way to Churchill Downs to make his first Run for the Roses on May 7.
Davis said he while he is excited at the possibility of a Kentucky Derby mount, he will focus on the Wood Memorial before anything else.
“I'm just trying to ride a good, steady race,” said Davis. “We'll see what happens. If he wins, then it will be one of my dreams to go to the Derby. It would mean a lot. We'll definitely take this race first – one race at a time and we'll go from there.”
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