Cox Eyes Easier Assignment for Concert Tour
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Concert Tour gallops ahead of the 2021 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
After a disappointing comeback effort in the Fifth Season Stakes, the bar may be set lower for the next start of Gary and Mary West's Concert Tour .
Running for the first time in eight months and making his first start since switching trainers from Bob Baffert to Brad Cox, the grade 2-winning Concert Tour was second after the opening quarter-mile in the Jan. 15 Fifth Season but faded in the stretch and finished ninth and last in the mile stakes at Oaklawn Park.
"He came out of the Fifth Season fine. We'll just regroup and probably try to find a conditioned allowance race for him," Cox said. "Obviously he didn't have things go his way in his return. He's a very sound horse and he trains well. Hopefully he can bounce back."
Concert Tour, a homebred 4-year-old son of Street Sense , won three of five starts at 3, including the San Vicente (G2) and Rebel (G2) stakes. Third in the Arkansas Derby (G1), he was sidelined with bone chips in an ankle after finishing ninth in the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico Race Course.
Since the Fifth Season, he breezed four furlongs in :48 2/5 at Oaklawn, the third-fastest of 78 works at the distance Jan. 28.