Travers Runner-up Disarm Breezes at Fair Grounds

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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Disarm trains in May prior to his fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs

Graded stakes winner Disarm , unraced since a runner-up finish behind Arcangelo   in the Travers Stakes (G1) Aug. 26 at Saratoga Race Course, recorded his first published breeze since that race with a four-furlong move in :53 4/5 Jan. 8 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots

After a third-place finish and a maiden victory as a 2-year-old in 2022, the son of Gun Runner   developed into a stakes horse last year. Fourth in the Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, he later won the Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at Ellis Park. He is 2-3-2 in nine starts with earnings of just over $1 million for owner Winchell Thoroughbreds and Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Winchell Thoroughbreds racing manager David Fiske said Disarm exited the Travers with bone bruising, and the team behind him exercised patience in bringing the colt back when a positron emission tomography scan suggested Disarm might benefit from an additional month of downtime. He seems on target for a return in a couple of months at this early juncture.

"He's a pretty big boy. He'll take a little training to get into race shape," Fiske said.

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Arcangelo with jockey Javier Castellano,center with pink helmut starts to pull ahead to win the 154th running of The Travers Stakes the Saratoga Race Course Saturday Aug 26, 2023 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Photo Special to the Times Union by Skip Dickstein
Photo: Skip Dickstein
Disarm (brown silks) finishes second behind Arcangelo in the Travers Stakes the Saratoga Race Course

Disarm has been joined at Fair Grounds by fellow 4-year-old Extra Anejo , who has been out of action since a fourth in the July 22 Haskell Stakes (G1) at Monmouth Park. The Into Mischief   colt is 2-1-0 in four starts with earnings of $207,185.

"Extra Anejo and Disarm—they were kind of laid up together at Becky Maker's (Shantera Farm)," Fiske said. "She does a stellar job bringing all of our horses back from surgeries, injuries, or whatever. He was another one with bone bruising, one of two other minor things."

That duo, as well as Red Route One  and Gun It , look to be some of the racing stable's top runners in early 2024.

Winchell Thoroughbreds also is busy off the track. Joining the Winchell Thoroughbreds broodmare band this year is millionaire Wicked Halo , a graded stakes-winning daughter of Gun Runner  Just Wicked , by Tapit  . According to Fiske, she will be bred to Hill 'n' Dale Farms stallion Good Magic  , who stands for $125,000 this season after ranking second on both the 2022 first-crop sires list and the 2023 second-crop sires list. He, of course, boasts a Kentucky Derby (G1) winner from his first crop in Mage  .

Another top sprinting female last year, Ballerina Handicap (G1) winner Echo Zulu , who Winchell Thoroughbreds raced with L and N Racing, continues to rest and recover in California. The champion 2-year-old filly of 2021 underwent fetlock arthrodesis surgery in October after sustaining a biaxial sesamoid fracture of her left front fetlock while training at Santa Anita Park, leading to her retirement from racing. 

She is doing well, but her connections are taking a cautious recovery approach, given the seriousness of her injury.

"She won't be having any Cal-bred foals," he quipped. "We might miss the breeding season with her."

Fiske said Winchell Thoroughbreds typically breeds their approximately 25-horse broodmare band to stallions they campaigned, led by Gun Runner, Tapit, Epicenter  , and Gunite  

"We kind of breed 'in house.' It's getting a little more difficult given how many Tapit mares we've got, how many Gun Runners out of Tapit mares. We kind of keep closing off some of our avenues.

"But," he said with a chuckle of appreciation, "everybody wishes they had that problem."