Spinaway Winner Perfect Alibi Breezes Toward Return

Tracy Farmer's grade 1 winner Perfect Alibi, trained by Mark Casse, breezed a half-mile in :49.50 April 3 on the Belmont Park training track as she gears up for her first start at 3.

Bred in Kentucky by Pin Oak Stud, the dark bay daughter of Sky Mesa  won the Adirondack Stakes (G2) at 6 1/2 furlongs and the Spinaway Stakes (G1) at seven furlongs at Saratoga Race Course last summer. After a runner-up effort behind champion British Idiom in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland in October, Perfect Alibi completed her juvenile campaign with a fourth-place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

"She's doing well. This was her second work since we brought her up here from Florida," said assistant trainer Jamie Begg, who oversees a stable of 22 horses at Belmont for Casse. "She's not an electrifying work horse, but we just have to keep her coming along as she hasn't raced since the Juvenile Fillies. She had a few little issues when I got her here, but nothing major. She's doing really well."

Perfect Alibi is 25th on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks leaderboard with six points. 

"She's a big filly, and she's always trained like a horse that would keep getting better as the races got longer," Begg said. "If we can get her fit, there's good races for her, depending how the stakes schedule works out."

Although Perfect Alibi's graded wins came in sprints, Begg said the sizable filly should appreciate a distance of ground.

"The tracks later on in her 2-year-old year at Keeneland and Santa Anita weren't to her liking. They were both speed-favoring," Begg said. "I think her wins at Saratoga had more to do with the setup of the races, rather than her being a come-from-behind sprinter. 

"In the morning, you don't get a good gauge of her. She barely wins her works. Leading into the Adirondack, we actually worked her on the grass to see if maybe she was a better grass horse, but she worked the same on the grass as the dirt. She just runs her eyeballs out in the afternoon. I do think she's the type that wants to go long."

With the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) pushed back to Sept. 4 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Begg said the later start would allow Perfect Alibi time to get fit and mature for her sophomore campaign.

"It helps her as we probably wouldn't have made the Oaks," Begg said. "We still have to get a race under her belt and get some points. For now, we'll get her close to ready to run and see what's out there."

Another Farmer-owned and Casse-trained runner, Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) winner Sir Winston, is back training at Belmont Park after returning from Dubai, where he was a contender for the Dubai World Cup Presented by Emirates Airline (G1), which was canceled because of the pandemic.

Sir Winston hasn't raced since winning a Jan. 31 allowance optional claimer at Aqueduct Racetrack. He broke last of seven in the one-turn mile race but rallied to win by 2 1/4 lengths.

"He's doing good. It looked like the Dubai trip took something out of him weight-wise when he first shipped in, but he's actually come around and put that weight back on," Begg said. "We've galloped him a few days, and mentally the trip didn't seem to take too much out of him."

Begg said the Aqueduct win, which came on the back of an off-the-board effort in his turf stakes debut in the Woodchopper Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, demonstrated that Sir Winston is back in form.

"We went in there with the idea of throwing that Fair Grounds race out because it was off the layoff and on a soft turf," Begg said. "It was definitely a relief when he ran back better at Aqueduct because you never know how they'll come back. 

"It's unfortunate the Dubai World Cup canceled as he was starting to do well leading into the race. We had Frankie Dettori lined up to ride him, and that would have been a neat opportunity to see what he could do on the horse."