Upstart Nears Sophomore Debut

Ralph Evans’s Upstart (Flatter), third in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, continues to progress and may make his sophomore debut in the Jan. 24 GII Lambholm South Holy Bull S. at Gulfstream Park. The colt is expected to work five furlongs at Palm Meadows Monday for trainer Rick Violette. 

“He’s doing great,” Violette said. “We’ll have tomorrow’s breeze and then another one. I’m kind of a work and a half behind. We’ll see how easily he does those and how much he blows and how he comes out of his next two breezes. We’d love to make the Holy Bull without getting ahead of ourselves. We’ll see how he does things and go from there.” 

Upstart joined Violette’s southern string in mid-November and had his first three-furlong breeze in :37.25 Dec. 23. He followed with a pair of half-mile works, going :50.05 Dec. 31 and :49.10 Jan. 6. 

“He went a terrific half in company last week and looked good,” Violette said. “He’ll do the five-eighths [Monday] and we’ll kind of see where that leads us.” 

A debut winner at Saratoga in August, Upstart returned to take the Funny Cide S. before running second behind Daredevil (More Than Ready) in the Oct. 4 GI Champagne S. He was 6 1/2 lengths adrift of Texas Red (Afleet Alex) and just a nose behind runner-up Carpe Diem (Giant’s Causeway), in the Nov. 1 Breeders’ Cup. 

“We gave him four weeks off, and I think he’s thrived,” Violette said. “We put him out in the paddocks there and he was bucking and squealing. He put on some weight and gotten a little bit more mature looking, a little squarer. He didn’t necessarily get any taller, but he filled out a little bit. Certainly that little brief time off did him well. We’re kind of back to full speed ahead.”