After refusing to work at Saratoga on Monday morning, Classic Empire was shipped to Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Fla. Monday afternoon where his connections hope the reigning 2-year-old champion can get into a regular training routine and perhaps still make the Grade 1, $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 23.

"I just figure I got to get him going quick," trainer Mark Casse said Wednesday morning. "We went back to basics; where we got the Arkansas Derby."

During the winter, when Classic Empire was refusing to train at Palm Meadows, a training center in south Florida, Casse shipped the colt to Winding Oaks Farm -- where he was broken before he ever started racing -- and the colt got into a regular training pattern. He won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby after several works at Winding Oaks.

Classic Empire has not run since finishing second to Cloud Computing in the Preakness on May 20. He was entered in but scratched from the Belmont Stakes due to a foot abscess. He has not had an official breeze since early June.

Casse said that he hopes to breeze Classic Empire by or over the weekend and is still hopeful of making the Pennsylvania Derby.

"We need everything to go right from this point on, there's no question," Casse said. "I haven't given up."

More later on drf.com