Trainer Brad Cox said Saturday morning that he would aim Further Ado, a brilliant maiden winner Friday at Keeneland, toward the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.
Further Ado, solid but unspectacular in two Saratoga sprints to start his career, dazzled in his first start around two turns. Pressing the pace under Irad Ortiz Jr., Further Ado took the lead midway around the far turn and drew steadily clear, winning by a remarkable 20 lengths in a 1 1/16-mile race that ended at the sixteenth pole. His time of 1:43.52 produced a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, an elite 2-year-old number.
Ahead by 10 lengths at the stretch call, Further Ado widened his lead by running successively faster furlongs through the final three furlongs of the race.
Further Ado races for Spendthrift Farm and is a son of Gun Runner and the Sky Mesa mare, Sky Dreamer. Cox said the colt showed talent when he began breezing at Keeneland this past spring before moving to Cox’s Churchill string and training well enough to join the Cox barn at Saratoga. Fifth in his six-furlong debut, Further Ado finished third going seven furlongs in his second start, decent races, but not what Cox had seen from the colt during morning training.
“People who’d been getting on him thought he’d run longer,” Cox said.
Further Ado won’t be considered for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Cox said, the race coming just three weeks from an extremely fast race, and requiring a ship to California. The Grade 2, $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club over 1 1/16 miles makes more sense, said Cox.
“He had two runs already, and I don’t think he needs to run in a one-other-than” allowance race, Cox said.
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