Shawdyshawdyshawdy and Myhartblongstodady breeze for local stakes assignments at Belmont
ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Jorge Abreu enjoyed a solid Saratoga summer meet with a record of 32-10-6-2, while winning at a 31 percent clip led by his first stakes score of the year in the Yaddo with Myhartblongstodady. Abreu, a former Chad Brown assistant, took out his trainer’s license in 2016 and now oversees a significant stable with 30 horses at Belmont and another 10 training at Saratoga.
“This has been the best group of horses I’ve had since I started out, by far,” said Abreu.
Abreu has won two stakes in each of the past two years and he’ll look to exceed that total next Saturday with Lawrence and Jennifer Goichman’s Shawdyshawdyshawdy targeting the Grade 2 Pilgrim at Belmont and William H. Lawrence’s Liveyourbeastlife traveling to Pimlico Race Course for the Grade 1 Preakness, the third and final leg of the Triple Crown.
After working a swift five-eighths in 59.89 on September 17, Abreu removed the blinkers from Liveyourbeastlife on Saturday for a six-furlong breeze in 1:16.20.
“Liveyourbeastlife is doing everything the right way,” said Abreu, who will be saddling his first American Classic starter. “Last week, he breezed a little quicker than we’d like, but he did it easily on his own. Yesterday, I took the blinkers off so he wouldn’t do it again, because he’s a smart horse. He had a good breeze.”
A maiden winner at first asking last September at Belmont, the Ghostzapper colt bested older allowance company traveling nine furlongs on August 12 at the Spa ahead of a strong runner-up effort in the nine-furlong Grade 2 Jim Dandy, where he exited the inside post.
Abreu said he is hoping Liveyourbeastlife will secure a spot from the middle to the outside of the gate at Wednesday’s post-position draw.
“I’m hoping we’ll get a good post. I don’t want to get numbers one to four,” said Abreu. “We’ll ship to Baltimore on Tuesday and he’ll have a chance to gallop a couple days and school him.”
The blinkers will remain on Liveyourbeastlife for the Preakness where he will be piloted by Trevor McCarthy.
Shawdyshawdyshawdy, a Summer Front bay, graduated at first asking traveling 1 1/16-miles on the Saratoga turf. He followed with a deceptively-good fourth on September 7 in the one-mile Juvenile at Kentucky Downs.
The colt worked five-eighths in 1:01.10 Sunday on the Belmont main track.
“Shawdy breezed really well today,” said Abreu. “I’ll enter him Wednesday for the Pilgrim. He won well first time out going a mile and a sixteenth and I cut him back to the mile race at Kentucky Downs. He’s doing well and he’ll get to race out of his own stall.”
Lawrence Goichman’s Myhartblongstodady, a New York homebred daughter of Scat Daddy, is in the midst of a three-race win streak with a pair of state-bred scores ahead of the front-running Yaddo win. The dark bay 5-year-old mare worked a half-mile in 50.75 Sunday on the Belmont inner turf.
“It was a good, steady breeze. She went well,” said Abreu. “We’ll point to the Ticonderoga.”
The Ticonderoga, a 1 1/16-mile turf tilt, is slated for October 24 at Belmont as part of Empire Showcase Day.
Press Release
Photo: Myhartblongstodady wins the Yaddo. Credit: NYRA/Chelsea Durand
