Grade III winner Straight Line turned in a strong workout Monday as trainer Harvey Vanier prepares him for the seven-furlong Swale Stakes (gr. II) at Gulfstream Park March 5. Under jockey Brice Blanc, Straight Line kicked into gear at the Gulfstream Park half-mile pole and breezed through four furlongs in :48 4/5. The veteran stakes-winning mare Marwood broke into a workout at the same point while wider on the track. Straight Line pulled away from her in the stretch.Straight Line, who won the Iroquois Stakes (gr. III) at Churchill Downs in November, is being brought back slowly for his 3-year-old debut. Vanier said the son of Boundary developed a hock injury soon after his victory. "He must have cast himself in the stall or omething," said Vanier. "We had to take it easy on him and lay him up for a little bit, but he's settling back into things with these last few workouts."Vanier was pleased with his latest drill. "That was a tough mare chasing him," said Vanier following the workout. "She came to him in the stretch and he just drew away."Straight Line's win in Kentucky came at a one-turn mile distance. Earlier in the year, he finished second in the Arlington-Washington Futurity (gr. III) at Arlington Park, which is also a one-turn mile. He finished fourth in the Breeders' Futurity (gr. I) at Keeneland in his only two-turn test so far, but Vanier is looking forward to stretching out the colt after his Swale date.
"He seems to have the talent to go a distance," he said. "The Swale is just part of his schedule as we bring him back."
