Off the Tracks Purchased Privately

Newtown Anner Stud has purchased a majority interest from J Stables in undefeated 3-year-old filly Off the Tracks (Curlin–Harve de Grace, by Boston Harbor), an impressive winner of Gulfstream's Margate H. in her sophomore debut last Sunday. Last term's GIII Schuylerville S. heroine, previously campaigned by trainer Roderick R. Rodriguez, has been transferred to Todd Pletcher's Palm Beach Downs string.

“We picked her up three days ago and she galloped yesterday and today,” Pletcher said. “She's a big, strong filly and looks good. We'll probably look to gallop her the remainder of this week and start breezing her next weekend with the idea that maybe the [GII] Gulfstream Oaks [Apr. 2] is a possibility.”

Sidelined with a knee injury that required surgery, Off the Tracks resurfaced with a dominating 4 1/4-length decision in Hallandale last weekend. The $50,000 KEESEP yearling is a half-sister to GII West Virginia Derby and GIII Iowa Derby hero Concord Point (Tapit).

“I'm familiar with the filly from her race at Saratoga and I watched her race here the other day.” Pletcher said. “You would think with the pedigree that she has she would want to stretch out, so we'll see how she trains and go from there.”

Pletcher also reported that 'TDN Rising Star' Zulu (Bernardini) exited his runner-up finish behind undefeated Mohaymen (Tapit) in Saturday's GII Xpressbet.com Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream in good order.

“He seemed to come back well,” Pletcher said. “I was happy with him. I think he established that he belongs in that type of company. I thought it was a promising effort first time around two turns and obviously running against an extremely talented horse. He held his own. I think there's some areas that we can improve upon, his behavior in the post parade being one of them. We'll continue to work on that and we'll see how he trains and get a feel for the landscape of some of these races.”

As for what's next for Zulu, Pletcher continued, “The [GI] Florida Derby is an option mainly because it's kind of the first one, but we'll also keep our eye on how things are developing everywhere. We'll also consider the [GI] Wood Memorial and [GI] Arkansas Derby and the [GI] Blue Grass.”