Bay of Plenty Looks to Make Grade in Woodward
Updated: September 3, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Godolphin homebred Bay of Plenty (Medaglia d’Oro) will look to earn the first graded stakes victory of his career in Saturday’s GI Woodward S. and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin thinks the 4-year-old is poised for a big effort. The dark bay colt is coming off a front-running tally in the Aug. 9 Alydar S. at the Woodward’s 1 1/8-mile distance.
“He’s training great, doing very well,” McLaughlin said. “He loved the track when he won last time, so we decided to hit for the big time with a Grade I. It’s a big step up, but he liked the track and he just worked in :59 [at Greentree Training Center]. He’s ready.”
Bay of Plenty will likely face stiff competition from Liam’s Map (Unbridled’s Song) on the front end in Saturday’s Woodward.
“[Bay of Plenty] and Liam’s Map both have a lot of speed; it might not be so good,” McLaughlin admitted. “We’ll have to see. We could rate [Bay of Plenty], but he’s not that easy to rate.”
Jimmy Jerkens will saddle a pair of runners in the Woodward, with Tri-Bone Stable’s Effinex (Mineshaft) coming off a narrow victory over Tonalist (Tapit) in the July 4 GII Suburban H. and Centennial Farms’ Wicked Strong (Hard Spun) looking for his first win of the year off a fourth-place effort in the Aug. 8 GI Whitney H.
“He’s good, as good as we can hope,” Jerkens said of Effinex. “He ran the best race he’s had so far in his career in the Suburban and he’s been training steadily since. He’s proven he’s more than just a New York-bred, that’s for sure. He beat Tonalist and that’s no easy task.”
Wicked Strong, winner of last year’s GI Wood Memorial and a nose runner-up in the GI Travers S., showed improvement in the Whitney, according to Jerkens.
“I thought his last race he was much closer to the pace than he has been in all his races this year, which was good to see,” said Jerkens. “It tolled on him a little at the end, but it was still good to see him get into the thick of things. He was kind of laying back there and acting disinterested in all his other races. He looked like he came to get a little bit of spirit back last time.”