Ever So Lucky impressed Sheppard with his five furlong drill at Keeneland ahead of the Blue Grass
Augustin Stable owned 3-year-old colt, Ever So Lucky, has been turning in constant works ahead of the Grade 1, $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on 14 April, 2012, over at Keeneland’s synthetic surface over a distance of 1 1/8 miles.
Trained by Jonathan Sheppard, Ever So Lucky came at Keeneland on 10 April, 2012, and under jockey Julien Leparoux the colt turned in a drilled five furlongs in a time of 57 seconds flat.
“I told (Leparoux) to set him down a little bit because he’s going to run the longest distance of his life and he needs to get a little bit tired,” trainer Jonathan Sheppard said about Ever So Lucky. “The track’s lightning (fast), and the time doesn’t really mean anything. But I was very pleased with the way he did it. Julien did a good job.”
The clockers at Keeneland recorded Ever So Lucky’s run in fractions, and after his five furlong drill he went out and clocked six furlongs in 1 minute and 9 seconds and seven furlongs in 1 minute and 23 1/5 seconds.
It was his second work over the Keeneland’s synthetic surface, his previous work came a week back when he also breezed five furlongs in 59 2/5 seconds.
The Kentucky bred son of Indian Charlie, out of mare Bally Storm by Summer Squall, Ever So Lucky has been a tad unlucky with his racing schedule and training, and with a quarter in his right foot, Ever So Lucky has been forced to trained with a bar shoe, but he will go on to lose it in the Blue Grass Stakes and go out on the field with a normal shoe.
“Knock on wood,” he said. “Ever since he arrived here, his training has been uninterrupted for the first time really since he ran at Churchill Downs last year because he always seems to have some little bump in the road that’s interrupted his training. I kind of feel sorry for the horse because you bring him up to a point, then you back off him again and it’s kind of confusing.”
Tags: