Beren Considers Options Ahead of Curlin, Amsterdam At Saratoga

Beren wins the Paradise Creek at Belmont Park.

Susan Quick and Christopher J. Feifarek’s Beren is entered in Friday’s nine-furlong, $120,000 Curlin, but trainer Butch Reid Jr. said a recent bullet half-mile work in :46.60 on the Spa main track has him considering cross-entering in the 6 1/2-furlong, $200,000 Grade 2 Amsterdam on August 1 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The Weigelia sophomore boasts five wins and two seconds from 10 starts, including a pair of off-the-turf scores in his last two starts by 10 3/4-lengths in the seven-furlong Paradise Creek at Belmont and by 9 1/2-lengths in the 1 1/16-mile $100,000 Crowd Pleaser at Parx.

Reid, Jr. said the latter effort has him interested in stretching out the versatile bay.

“That last one is why I’m tempted to keep him around two turns,” Reid, Jr. said. “Both races look like they’re coming up equally tough, so it’s not going to be easy either way we go.”

Reid Jr. said he is considering longer-term options at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., for the Pennsylvania-bred colt, out of the millionaire multiple graded-stakes winning Diamond mare Silmaril, including the Grade 3 Smarty Jones on August 24 and the nine-furlong $1 million Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby on September 25.

“Being a ‘PA’ bred, the bonuses are worth a lot,” Reid, Jr. “When we won the $100,000 race in that last start, his owners own the stallion and the dam, so they got 110 percent of the purse. If he wins the Pennsylvania Derby, the breeder awards are big.”

Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, and Swilcan Stable’s reigning Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Vequist breezed a half-mile in :47.77 Friday on the Saratoga main track under Jose Lezcano in preparation for a potential comeback at the end of the Saratoga meet.

“Vequist likes this mountain air,” Reid, Jr. said. “She’s handling it very well. She didn’t do well in the Florida heat. She’s training very forwardly and we’re right on schedule with her.”

Reid, Jr. said Swilcan Stable and LC Racing’s Mainstay, a 2-year-old half-sister to stablemate Vequist, has come out of her runner-up effort to Pretty Birdie in the Grade 3 Schuylerville on Opening Day July 15 in good order and will now point to the 6 1/2-furlong, $200,000 Grade 2 Adirondack on August 8.

“Mainstay came back so well, we’ll take a shot in the Adirondack with her. I think that race did her a world of good,” Reid. Jr said.