NEWS
Macho Again still on target for Travers after action-packed morning
Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 1:28 PM
MACHO AGAIN
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by Phil Janack
Grade 2 winner Macho Again missed a scheduled work at Saratoga Race Course Friday morning and engaged in some antics in the barn area, but the three-year-old Macho Uno colt remains on target for the $1-million Travers Stakes (G1) on August 23.
Trainer Dallas Stewart decided to scrap the exercise when Macho Again showed some colic-like symptoms after being treated with Lasix.
"We always treat him with Lasix before he works, and he acted a little colicky," Stewart said. "He came out of it, but it was about a half-hour or 45-minute ordeal."
Winner of Saratoga's local Travers prep, the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) on July 27, Macho Again was cleared by a veterinarian, but Stewart chose to postpone the work.
"The vet said he was OK, but my gut said, 'no,' " Stewart said. "We took him out on the track and just went a couple miles the wrong way with him. He's fine.
"We're eight days out now. If I want to work him, I've got time. We'll just see how he does. If he misses a work, he misses a work. The good thing was he wasn't on that van headed to the clinic."
After returning from the track, Macho Again got loose in the courtyard in front of Stewart's barn and ran free for a few minutes before being caught by the stable help. He emerged with just a small scratch.
"Oh, man," Stewart said. "He threw his head and was bucking and kicking, and took off after the pony. That was the real ordeal. It seemed like forever. We're lucky we had a bunch of people around that got him or it could have been bad.
"He bit the pony. He got more out of that than he did a half-mile work. He's all right. He's macho. He wore me out, I can tell you that."
Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, Macho Again will be one of the top choices for the 1 1/4-mile Travers, the 139th renewal of Saratoga's centerpiece race.
In addition to the Jim Dandy, Macho Again won the Derby Trial Stakes on April 26 at Churchill Downs. He was second to Big Brown in the Preakness Stakes (G1) and fifth in the Belmont Stakes (G1) to Da' Tara. Another Travers contender, Da' Tara ran last of seven in the Jim Dandy.
Phil Janack is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
