Unbeaten Ancient Warrior is targeting a Feb. 2 first-level allowance sprint for his 3-year-old debut, Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Sunday morning.
Ancient Warrior was a front-running 4 ¼-length winner of his Nov. 23 career debut at Del Mar for Hollendorfer and breeder/owner Al Graziani, covering 6 furlongs in a sharp 1:09.72. Garth, who was runner-up in that maiden special weights event, was exiting a sixth-place finish in the $300,000 Del Mar Futurity (G1) Sept. 2 at Del Mar for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.
“We’ve liked him from the very beginning,” Hollendorfer said. “Progressed well and then he won his first out pretty handily.”
Ancient Warrior subsequently had four published workouts in Southern California before breezing for the first time locally Saturday morning. Ancient Warrior went 5 furlongs over a good surface in 1:00.40, a time that ranked second of 80 at the distance.
“He worked really good,” Hollendorfer said.
Ancient Warrior was nominated to last Friday’s $150,000 Smarty Jones Stakes – Oaklawn’s first of four Kentucky Derby points races – but Hollendorfer said he’s not rushing the son of millionaire and multiple Grade 1 winner Constitution, the country’s No. 2 first-crop sire in 2019.
“Taking them one at a time,” Hollendorfer said.
Ancient Warrior is among 30 horses at Oaklawn for Hollendorfer, who is wintering in Hot Springs for the first time. Hollendorfer, who is based in Southern California, said also has horses at Los Alamitos in suburban Los Angeles.
“It’s our first year running here, so we don’t know quite what to expect,” Hollendorfer said. “There’s a lot of claiming here and people running their horses in the right spots, so we’ll just try to adjust to see if we can work our horses in with these here.”
Hollendorfer had his first two starters of the meet Friday and had three more horses entered Sunday, including unbeaten 3-year-old Play the Wildcard in first-level allowance race at a mile. Hollendorfer co-owns Play the Wildcard, a Jack Milton gelding who was privately purchased following a Nov. 10 career-debut victory at Woodbine. Play the Wildcard was also nominated to the Smarty Jones.
Hollendorfer was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2011. He entered Sunday with 7,639 career victories to rank third in North American history.
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