Game on Dude and Executiveprivilege worked well ahead of their Breeders’ Cup races at Santa Anita
On 21 October, 2012, trainer Bob Baffert took his Breeders’ Cup bound runners on the Santa Anita track to work toward their respective races in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, as the lot was headed by the multiple graded stakes winner, Game on Dude, who is also the early favourite to win the Grade 1, $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on 3 November, 2012.
The 5-year-old gelded son of Awesome Again, Game on Dude is exiting a Grade 1 victory in the Awesome Again Stakes at Santa Anita Park over 1 1/8 miles. The track is Game on Dude’s favourite,and he is yet to lose a race over Santa Anita’s dirt track.
However, he still needs to build up and gain optimum form for the 1 ¼ mile Classic distance, and for that the gelding worked six furlongs and clocked the distance in 1 minute and 12 1/5 seconds with his regular rider, Rafael Bejarano aboard.
Game on Dude work in company with last year’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby winner and stable mate, Midnight Interlude, and he covered the six furlong distance in 1 minute and 14 3/5 seconds.
"He went really nice," Bob Baffert said of Game On Dude. "I really liked it. Everything went smooth." "He's been like this all year long. He's been really good ever since he came back from Dubai."
Out of Devil His Due’s mare Worldly Pleasure, Game on Dude finished second to winner, Drosselmeyer, in the 2011 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
Bob Baffert has another favourite for another Breeders’ Cup race, named as Grade 1 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Fillies. Executiveprivilege, the 2-year-old filly by First Samurai has stayed undefeated in five starts, and recently won at Santa Anita Park, when she landed the Grade 1 Chandelier Stakes over the venue’s dirt track.
Michael E. Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman owned filly turned in six furlongs in an impressive 1 minute and 12 seconds under Rafael Bejarano, and with company with Super Ninety Nine. Her work was clocked as the fastest of 21 at the distance.
"Her work didn't go as smooth as I wanted it to because she was too far back," Baffert said. "He (Bejarano) grabbed a hold of her and then she lost interest, but she worked good."
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