Wit Has Final Work for Pletcher Ahead of Hopeful

Repole Stable, St. Elias Stable, and Gainesway Stable's 2-year-old Wit , dominant winner of the July 17 Sanford Stakes (G3), put in his final preparation for the Sept. 6 Hopeful Stakes (G1) with a half-mile breeze Aug. 29 at Saratoga Race Course.

With jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. up, Wit went four furlongs in :49.22 over a main track rated fast. It was his fifth work at Saratoga since an eight-length triumph in the six-furlong Sanford. On Aug. 23, Wit got five furlongs in 1:01.42 on the Oklahoma Training Track to be the fastest of five horses at the distance.

"(It was) a good maintenance work," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "He had a really solid work last week so we were just kind of looking for the final prep, and it went smoothly.

"He's a really easy horse to train. He's very professional. He's very responsive to whatever you want him to do. He'll sit off a horse and he'll accelerate on command. He's really been push-button so far."

Wit worked in company with stablemate Power Agenda , a debut winner for Repole and St. Elias who was timed in :49.25 and is also under Hopeful consideration.

"Power Agenda worked well also. We'll see how he bounces out of it, but right now we're leaning toward running both," Pletcher said. "He showed that he's got some fight to him. He had trained well leading up to it, so we weren't surprised, but we've been happy with the way he's come out of it."

Pletcher said he was thrilled with the efforts of both Life Is Good  and Following Sea , who respectively ran second and third in Saturday's H. Allen Jerkens Memorial (G1).

"Both horses came out of it in good order this morning," Pletcher said. "(Life Is Good) ran a spectacular race off the layoff. (He) went really fast and just got nipped by a really good horse."

Pletcher said there is no specific race yet picked out for Life Is Good following the Jerkens.

"We're kind of surveying all of our options," he said. "We'll give it a little time just to digest the race and assess how he comes out of it. I think he's versatile enough that there's a lot of potential options."

Following Sea made a late run to be third, 8 3/4 lengths behind his stablemate, who was a neck back from winner Jackie's Warrior . 

"I thought he ran on well," Pletcher said. "He got a little confused when he got hit by dirt. He hadn't had a whole lot of experience with dirt in his face, but once he got going I thought he put in a nice run down the lane to get up for third."