Blue Rose Farm's Arcangelo (Arrogate), most recently winner of the GI Belmont S., tuned up for the Aug. 26 GI Travers S. with a five-furlong work in 1:01.23 (2/10) over the main track at Saratoga Wednesday.
Trained by Jena Antonucci and piloted through the work by Javier Castellano, Arcangelo was caught by NYRA Clockers through splits of :24 1/5 and :36 2/5 before galloping out in 1:14 2/5 and 1:27 flat.
“He was great. It was a beautiful work. Javier was very pleased,” Antonucci said.
Wednesday's work was Arcangelo's third over the Saratoga surface.
“He loves it. We're so blessed with him, he doesn't seem to care what's underneath him,” Antonucci said. “He handles it beautifully. Facilities has done a great job of keeping it very consistent and he's thriving off of that.”
Antonucci said Arcangelo has enjoyed breezing on a 10-day schedule, as opposed to the more common every seven days routine.
“You have to pay attention to your horse and understand who they are,” Antonucci said. “This horse just needs that space because with his cruising speed and how he trains, he's thrived on more of a 10-day schedule. My job is to listen and stay out of his way.”
Spinaway Likely Next for Sam's Treasure
Sam's Treasure (Munnings), an impressive maiden winner at Saratoga last Saturday, is expected to make her next start in the Sept. 3 GI Spinaway S.
“She came out of it really good,” trainer Wesley Ward said of the Breeze Easy colorbearer. “Early on, she was a big filly and we didn't want to run her at Keeneland because she was maturing–those races in April, you've got to be quick out of the gate and smaller and agile. She had shown some grass affinity early on in her training at Palm Meadows and we were hopeful to win at Belmont [over the turf in her May 11 debut], but we were beaten soundly with no excuses. With the experience she got and as sound as she came out of it, we were really pointing to Saratoga and hoping she had an effort in her like the one she showed the other day.”
Sam's Treasure's 5 3/4-length graduation came over six furlongs. She will be stretching out to seven furlongs for the Spinaway.
“She's at Keeneland at my main base and my main rider Julio Garcia will ride her in training and hopefully get her there to the Spinaway,” said Ward. “Looking at her race at six furlongs, she didn't show any signs of stopping. It will be tougher in the Spinaway, but she just kept bounding along last time.”
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