'Laid-Back' Mor Spirit Aggressive in Workout

A little added competition seemed to do the trick for Mor Spirit Feb. 28 at Santa Anita Park in his first timed workout since jockey Gary Stevens had to abort a drill Feb. 23.



Working in company with a stablemate, the Eskendereya colt found two other workers during the five-furlong drill and moved past all three well, four wide in the final sixteenth, to complete the drill in :59 2/5 under jockey Martin Garcia.



NOVAK: Stevens Calls Audible During Mor Spirit Work



"We wanted to see him a little more aggressive and get him into the work," trainer Bob Baffert said of the Michael Lund Petersen-owned colt. "It worked out really well, because there was a couple horses working in front of him and it gave him another target. ... He really worked well and galloped out strong.



It was Mor Spirit's second workout since his 1 1/2-length victory in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes (gr. III) Feb. 6 and his Hall of Fame trainer calls the colt "a laid-back horse."

NOVAK: Mor Spirit Secures Robert B. Lewis Score



"That's him," Baffert said. "He will show you more in the afternoon, which is good, but after watching him pull up he came back here and he looked like he handled it pretty well. I was really happy with it."