SOMETHING ‘EXTRA’ FOR THE BLUE GRASS

Michael Kirwin and Edward Hipps homebred Extrasexyhippzster (Stroll) will attempt to upset Saturday’s GI Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland, and has a decent chance to do so. The 15-1 morning-line shot enters the weekend with a number of solid works of the polytrack under his girth. 
“He’s training well,” said trainer Mike Trombetta. “He’s been breezing well over the track, he’s been out here for a couple of weeks now and he seems to be coming into it in pretty good order.” 
The Pennsylvania-bred began his career at Parx where he was third Oct. 19 and graduated Nov. 5. Trombetta knew early on that the colt was special. 
    “We thought he was way above par and we liked him a lot,” the conditioner commented. “He encountered trouble in his first race out of the gate and it was going short. His second race was much better–he had a good break and was on his way. It’s kind of hard to tell if you’re going to get to this stage of things early one, but he certainly always trained very well.” 
    Extrasexyhippzster traveled down the coast to finish fourth in Laurel’s Marylander S. Dec. 7, but came back with a 5-length romp in the Big A’s Don Rickles S. 
Dec. 21. Winner of the one-mile Miracle Wood S. at Laurel Jan. 25, he then finished eighth in the GIII Gotham S. Mar. 1.
   “He didn’t get out of the gate well,” Trombetta explained. “He took a half of a step backwards when the doors open and got left. That was the worst thing that could have happened to him on that day because speed was very, very good and to have to play catch up on that racetrack was nearly impossible.” 
    Trombetta is confident in the colt, but admits that he’s unsure how Extrasexyhippzster will take to the 
1 1/8-mile distance. “That’s a question mark and the only way to really find out is to try him,” Trombetta said. “We haven’t done this yet, so we’ll have to see. He was pretty successful at the one-turn mile, so we’ll give this a try.” 
     As for his strategy on Saturday, Trombetta remarked, “In that big field, you’ll just try to work yourself through the crowd and you yourself the best trip you can.” –J.M. Severni