by Jeff Lowe

War Pass, the likely champion two-year-old male, breezed three furlongs at Palm Meadows Training Center on Thursday morning in his first workout since his victory in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) for owner Robert La Penta.

The undefeated Cherokee Run colt was clocked in :37, the fifth fastest time of 14 moves at the distance.

“He looked real nice doing it,” trainer Nick Zito said. “He was just in a gallop.”

Zito and La Penta are plotting a schedule for War Pass to race three times leading up to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1). Zito has tentatively selected the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) on March 15 and the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) on April 8 as the final two preps. He will wait until War Pass gets farther along in his training before he picks out the first.

“We’ll play it by ear for the first one,” Zito said. “[The Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial] make sense to me. We’ll see if we can go the mile-and-a-quarter.”

Zito said he will stay in Florida rather than attend the Eclipse Awards ceremony on January 21 in Beverly Hills, California.

“That’s all up to Bob,” Zito said. “I’m leaving it all up to him. It’s his night, I’ll let him enjoy it. It’s the owner’s deal. If we had another one, maybe I would have gone.”

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer