Oscar Performance, the Grade 1 Belmont Derby winner, breezed an easy half-mile in 52.88 seconds Tuesday morning over the training track at Belmont Park. It was his first breeze since his Belmont Derby victory and his first toward a possible start in the Grade 1, $400,000 Secretariat at Arlington Park on Aug. 12.
“The track was a little bit heavy, I didn’t want to do too much with him on the dirt because I usually work him on the grass,” Lynch said Tuesday outside his Belmont Park barn.
Lynch said he kept Oscar Performance at Belmont because he does not plan on racing the horse this summer at Saratoga and the colt’s regular exercise rider, Antonio Orellano, is at Belmont.
Though Lynch said the Secretariat, at 1 1-4 miles is on his radar for Oscar Performance, the horse is going to have show him he’s ready to run.
“He’s going to have to tell me that everything’s right with him because I could easily give him a little bit more time and pick another spot for him," Lynch said. "But everything seems to be good.
Lynch said his year-end goal with Oscar Performance is the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 4.
Lightstream, Lynch’s multiple graded-stakes winning spring filly, worked a half-mile in 50.20 seconds Tuesday over the Belmont training track. Lynch is toying with the idea of stretching her out to 1 1-8 miles in the Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 26. Lightstream has never run beyond 1 1-16 miles and has yet to race around two turns.
The race would be more attractive if Songbird doesn’t show up as Lynch noted the older filly and mare route division on the East Coast “is not the biggest, strongest category.”
Case in point, Sunday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee Handicap drew only 10 nominations and, as of Tuesday, only Terra Promessa, Paid Up Subscriber and Apologynotaccepted were confirmed as starters.