Weyburn prepares for the Grade 2 Jim Dandy at Saratoga.
Chiefswood Stables homebred Weyburn worked a bullet five-eighths in :59.40 in company Saturday on the Saratoga main track in preparation for next Saturday’s $600,000 Grade 2 Jim Dandy, a nine-furlong test for sophomores.
“We wanted him to go good. I hope it wasn’t too fast, but he seemed to handle it really well,” Jerkens said. “He went by the workmate once they passed the quarter pole and galloped out on his own. He had a target in the first part of the work, which is why he probably went so fast.”
Saturday’s breeze by the Ontario-bred son of Pioneerof the Nile followed a bullet five-eighths in 1:00.60 on July 16 over the Spa main track.
“We weren’t planning on doing that, but the weather was creeping up on us. We gave him a work and the track was heavy and he worked good and he was blowing pretty hard,” Jerkens said. “That work really tightened him up and the work yesterday was no problem at all.”
Centennial Farms’ multiple graded stakes winner Rocketry breezed six furlongs in 1:17.70 Saturday on the Oklahoma dirt training track in preparation for the $120,000 Birdstone, a 1 3/4-mile test for older horses on August 5.
“It was a nice long work,” Jerkens said. “We’re going to come back and work him in company before he runs.”
The 7-year-old Hard Spun bay was off-the-board last out in the 12-furlong Grade 1 Brooklyn, which was won by emerging marathon star Lone Rock.
Jerkens said he is hopeful that the added distance will suit Rocketry, whose last win came three starts back in the 1 5/8-mile Grade 2 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance in November at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky.
“That one horse [Lone Rock] looks like a standout in that category. If ever he’s going to beat horses like that, it’s going that distance,” Jerkens said. “That’s what happened in Kentucky. The pace was just too sharp for going that far and they came back to him and he went by them in the very end.”
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