Todd Pletcher confident on Violence’s CashCall Futurity chances
Veteran horseman, Todd Pletcher, is flush with so many 2-year-olds, and quality ones too, that he showed in this year’s Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park for which he shipped west 6 weeks ago, and secured an Eclipse Award for his best juvenile, Shanghai Bobby, who stayed undefeated and on top of it went on to win the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
The promising 2-year-old males are aplenty at Pletcher’s barn this season, and he showed his strength in the division when he kept Violence on the sidelines, and sent Overanalyze to win the Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Todd Pletcher had a plan for Violence, and the plan was to save him up for the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity Stakes set to go underway on 15 December, 2012, at Betfair Hollywood Park. The race will be run over a distance of 1 1/16 miles on the venue’s cushion track.
The 2-year-old colt by Medaglia d'Oro, Violence, has showed enough promise to go off the favourite against He’s Had Enough – a quartet of entrants from Bob Baffert – exiting a second place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
However, Violence is ready for Grade 1 company, after a magnificent maiden win at first asking at Saratoga over seven furlongs, and then going on to win the Grade 2 Nashua Stakes over a mile at Aqueduct Racetrack on 4 November, 2012.
Black Rock Stables’ colt is 2 for 2 in New York, and both his starts came on dirt, but this time he will have to show his versatility over surfaces, class, and states.
“We considered running back in the Remsen, but we’d have been bringing him back in 20 days, so we started looking at other options, and timing-wise the Futurity fit well in the calendar,” Pletcher said via telephone Thursday morning. “Plus, it’s Grade 1 status, and the size of the purse, are very attractive.”
The future Kentucky Derby prospect, Violence, can earn valuable points off from the Futurity by winning it under the new qualifying system, where horses will have to earn maximum points to get a place in Kentucky Derby field.
Under the previous system, victory in the CashCall Futurity almost guaranteed a start in the Kentucky Derby, which was based on earnings rather than points.
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