Runhappy Returns to Kentucky Training Center
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt Photo
Runhappy winning the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland
Champion male sprinter Runhappy returned to the Kentucky Training Center near Lexington Feb. 28 following some rest in Texas and will resume training toward a 2016 campaign.
Trainer Laura Wohlers said James McIngvale's 4-year-old son of Super Saver —Bella Jolie, by Broken Vow , will be pointed toward a seasonal debut at Churchill Downs in the seven-furlong Churchill Downs Handicap (gr. II) on Kentucky Derby weekend, with a run at the Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I) at Belmont Park as the early summer target.
Wohlers, who is in South Florida shopping the Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-old sale, will be with Runhappy in Kentucky later in the week.
Runhappy was at a farm near Austin, Texas, following his score Dec. 26 in the Malibu Stakes (gr. I) at Santa Anita Park.
BALAN: Runhappy Untouchable in Malibu Victory
"He's been jogging for the last month," Wohlers reported. "We've been working on getting him to learn how to jog and relax so we can start stretching him out."
Beause of the equine herpesvirus outbreak earlier this year in west Texas and New Mexico, the team decided to ship Runhappy to Kentucky a bit earlier than planned.
A winner of seven of eight starts and $1,481,300, Runhappy put together an impressive winning streak last year. From early July through the end of the year, he rattled off wins in allowance/optional claiming company at Indiana Grand and Ellis Park, then tore through four graded stakes: the NYRA.com King's Bishop (gr. I), Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix Stakes (gr. III), TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I)—setting the track mark for six furlongs—and the Malibu.
NOVAK: Runhappy Sets Track Record in BC Sprint
A $200,000 Keeneland September sale graduate, Runhappy was bred in Kentucky by Wayne Lyster and his sons, Bryan and Gray.