'TDN Rising Star' Theory (Gemologist) makes his much-anticipated sophomore debut in the seven-furlong GIII Bay Shore S. against five rivals on Saturday's GII Wood Memorial S. undercard.
Last term's GIII Futurity S. winner spiked a fever immediately following a well-beaten 10th-place finish in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, his first try around two turns, and was turned out at WinStar before joining Todd Pletcher's Palm Beach string in late December.
“He's been very well and training really good,” Pletcher said. “He's probably been ready to run for a couple of weeks now. It's just that the [Spectacular Bid at Gulfstream] didn't fill and we had to go to a backup plan, but he seems like he's been happy and training well.
Pletcher continued of the 7-5 morning-line favorite, “We feel like he's well-suited for one-turn races. We're not ruling out stretching him out down the road, we just felt like this was sort of the logical distance to get him started.”
The New York-bred Long Haul Bay (Quality Road), a narrow local debut winner Feb. 18 with a field-high 90 Beyer Speed Figure, is the 5-2 second choice on the morning line.
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