After Any Given Saturday's impressive victory in the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) trainer Todd Pletcher considered the Travers Stakes (G1), but decided to wait for the Brooklyn Breeders' Cup Handicap (G2) on September 22 at Belmont Park.
"Giving a little bit of space from here [the August 5 Haskell] to the Brooklyn, we're following a very similar program to what we did going from a one-turn race at Belmont to a two-turn race at Monmouth. It gives him five weeks from the Brooklyn to the Breeders' Cup. I think it's a good setup."
It is the kind of logic that has seen Pletcher win the last three Eclipse Awards as outstanding trainer, an honor that he is currently the front-runner for in 2007.
Any Given Saturday held up his end of the bargain with a rallying 2 1/2-length victory in the Brooklyn as the 0.15-to-1 favorite, despite hitting the side of the gate, breaking outward, and getting tangled up with several other horses.
"Any time you are a big favorite, you just want everything to go smoothly," Pletcher said. "Garrett [Gomez] said that when he left the gate, there was contact between two or three horses, and that got him up on the bridle. Garrett got him back and settled him. We thought earlier in the year that he was one of the best three-year-olds. He got a foot bruise in the Kentucky Derby [G1], but everything else has been perfect since. It was sort of a strange race; you don't see those big gaps. He had to work a bit."
Any Given Saturday will now train for the Breeders' Cup Classic Powered by Dodge (G1) on October 27 at Monmouth Park.
October 22 - Jogged one mile on the Belmont Park training track.
"He is training very well, and he has a style that suits Monmouth," trainer Todd Pletcher said on Monday morning.
October 21 - Five furlongs breezing in 1:02.12 at Belmont Park, dirt training track fast. Tenth best of 23 workouts at the distance.
October 14 - Five furlongs breezing in 1:00.27 at Belmont Park, dirt training track fast. Second best of 36 workouts at the distance.
October 6 - Four furlongs breezing in :49.06 at Belmont Park, track fast. 18th best of 38 workouts at the distance.
Jockey Garrett Gomez, after Any Given Saturday's Brooklyn Handicap (G2) victory despite getting bumped around at the start:
"He did have to overcome some things and he did have to make up some ground. He's proven he likes it down there [at Monmouth Park] and hopefully he'll run the same kind of race [in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) as he did in the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1) at Monmouth]."