Blame Works, On Target for JC Gold Cup

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Photo: Coglianese Photos

Whitney winner Blame scheduled to make next start in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
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Blame  , winner of the Whitney Handicap (gr. I) at Saratoga, returned to the work tab for the first time since his upset of Quality Road, going an easy half-mile in :50.61 on the Oklahoma training track at the Spa Aug. 19.

“I was going to work him tomorrow (Friday), but he was showing me that he was ready; he had too much energy,” said Al Stall Jr., who trains Blame for Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm. “He did it perfectly. He went :26 and :24 on his own, which was fine.”

The next objective for Blame will be the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I) at Belmont Park on Oct. 2, a 1 1/4-mile race that Stall hopes will set the Arch   colt up for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) at Churchill Downs Nov. 6.

“He’s had three solid races in a row this year,” said Stall of Blame, who has won five straight, including the Stephen Foster (gr. I) at Churchill Downs in June. “He seems better now than he was before the Whitney.”
 

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