Overdriven to go through one last decisive test to ensure his inclusion in the Hopeful Stakes on 5 September
Owned by Repole Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher, the 2-year-old colt, Overdriven, got his workout cancelled for the second time in nine days on 18 August.
The 2-year-old topnotch colt, who is perfect in his two starts, has made his trainer doubtful over his ability to go ahead and participate in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga on 5 September.
Therefore, the unbeaten colt was scheduled to turn in a four furlong's workout session at the Saratoga main track on the morning of 18th August, accompanied by his exercise mate Restitution.
The workout was to be carefully observed by Overdriven's trainer, Todd Pletcher, and it did, but Pletcher did not like what he saw.
Pletcher said that Overdriven is doing just fine in the barn, but lately whenever he comes out for training, something doesn’t seem to be right about him.
The champion trainer did not like the way the colt moved and he decided to cancel the four furlong's breeze and instead instructed the exercise trainer, Patti Krotenko, to gallop the colt for about one and a half miles over at the Saratoga main track.
Overdriven looks fine on his own and doesn’t seem to give out anything that would suggest that there is something wrong with the colt, but once he comes out with the rider, he changes a little bit with regard to the way he moves.
The other cancellation happened on 9th August, when Overdriven came out of to train, but Todd Pletcher did not like the way he warmed up, and impllied through his actions that there is something wrong with him.
Later they found out that Overdriven pulled a gluteal muscle which was blistered internally, but he recovered from it soon and got back to his training session after a few days.
Pletcher said that they thought there was some improvement in the colt's movement so they called him in.
Todd Pletcher is still concerned about his 2-year-old colt and nobody can seem to put a finger on what’s wrong with the colt.
All the tests that have been done on Overdriven have come out negative, but to zoom in on the problem, Pletcher is going to do a nuclear scintigraphy.
His connections are still hoping that the colt participates in the Hopeful Stakes on 5 September, but Pletcher mentioned that they would need everything to go right from this point to make the Saratoga feature a possibility.
Overdriven won the Grade 2 Sanford Stakes on 24 July after getting recognised as the leading 2-year-old when he broke his maiden at Belmont Park by 3 ½ lengths.
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