Sky Mesa, Winner of the Hopeful stakes, is in fine form the day after his sparkling effort, according to his trainer."He is very bright this morning," John Ward said Sunday. "In fact we were going to walk him early but, he's so bright, we decided to wait until the morning quieted down a little first."Ward said the colt was happy and hungry after the race and to be sure he wasn't still holding on to any residual effect of his previous illness, they did a post-race endoscopic exam, which came back clean.Ward said that the first 72 hours after the physical stress of a race would be when to expect a relapse if the horse is not completely healthy. On Tuesday, the Ward stable will fly to Keeneland. Sky Mesa, owned by John Oxley, will make his next start in the Futurity (gr. I) at Keeneland. Ward said they are looking forward to running the son of Pulpit around two turns before considering the Breeders' Cup.As for Point Given's little sister, Perfect Story, by Tale Of The Cat, she is doing very well and is set for her debut at Keeneland on opening day. "For some reason, she took a little longer than Sky Mesa to overcome the illness that they had earlier," Ward said. "Sometimes fillies hang on to it longer. We wanted to make sure she was completely over it and at 100 percent before we started to do anything with her again."Perfect Story worked this morning a nifty 3/8 on the main track in :35.05, handily.
"She works too fast alone," Ward said. "She actually breezes better in company, more relaxed and slower."