Darren Warren indecisive over Acclamation’s next start, but leans toward Clement Hirsch
The 5-year-old Darren Warren trained Acclamation hasn’t been ruled out of the possibility to race in the Grade 2 Hirsch Turf Championship at Santa Anita on 2 October, as he draws the rail in the Grade 1 $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita on 1 October,
2011.
Whichever race Acclamation chooses, he will ultimately be the favourite to win it, but trainer Darren Warren is more inclined towards the $150,000 Clement Hirsch, run over a distance of 1 ¼ miles on grass.
If Acclamation goes for the Goodwood Stakes, he will emerge as a main threat to the Bob Baffert duo, Coil and Game on Dude, but if he decides to go the other way, he will face the likes of Champ Pegasus and Imponente Purse.
Darren Warren entered Acclamation in both races, and he declared that personally he likes the Clement Hirsch for Acclamation.
The son of Unusual Heat, out of Winning in Style by Silveyville, Acclamation is coming off wins in the four graded stakes, with 3 grade 1 races and a grade 2 race.
With two consecutive losses in the beginning of the year, where he lost in the Grade 1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita, and then at Charles Town, he rolled in a disappointing 10th in the Grade 3 Charles Town Classic.
The winning streak started with the Grade 2 Jim Murray Handicap on 14 May, 2011, at about 1 ½ miles on turf.
Then winning a trio of Grade 1 races, just speaks of the quality of the horse.
He won the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park, Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar, and the Grade 1 Pacific Classic also at Del Mar.
Acclamation and his connections have firmly set their eyes on the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, and whatever they do from now on will be to prepare the horse for his ultimate goal for the season.
Goodwood Stakes, on the other hand, is a prep race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where Acclamation decides to go still isn’t clear, and Warren will probably weigh the options and point him to what’s best for his horse.
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