Effinex, Unified Set for Stakes Engagements

Striding out over the Belmont Park main track as training hours drew close to an end June 10, Centennial Farms' undefeated Unified powered impressively through a six-furlong breeze.

Earlier in the morning over on the training track, Jimmy Jerkens kept a close eye on Tri-Bone Stables' Effinex as the likely favorite for the June 18 Stephen Foster (gr. I) also got down to business with a five-furlong move.

Jerkens might not have a Belmont Stakes (gr. I) contender this year, having risen above the temptation of running highly talented Unified in the 1 1/2-mile test, but he does have a hot hand with that 3-year-old Candy Ride runner blooming full of potential and Effinex already established at the highest level after winning Churchill Downs' Clark Handicap (gr. I) last year.

NOVAK: Effinex Lands Grade I in Clark Handicap

New York Racing Association clockers caught Unified in 1:12.90 for his work on the main track, and gave 5-year-old Effinex 1:01.05 for his breeze. Both will go favored in their respective races next weekend, with Effinex headed to Churchill Downs and Unified shipping to Monmouth Park to run around two turns in the Pegasus (gr. III) June 19 off his victory in the May 14 Peter Pan (gr. II).

NOVAK: Unified Stays Perfect in Peter Pan

"We're going to try a two-turn experiment with him," Jerkens said. "He's doing good. I wasn't sure that mile and a half was his thing. He did get the mile and an eighth in the Peter Pan but it was around one turn and the track was ultra-fast, which probably carried him also. Just knowing the horse, (running in the Belmont) just didn't seem like the right thing to do.

"We'll give him two-turn experience and see how he deals with that. if he does maybe we can go on to the Jim Dandy (gr. II) or Haskell (gr. I), and if it doesn't look like it's his thing we can go back to the middle-distance races."

While Unified has just a short van ride to Monmouth, Effinex will fly to Kentucky June 12. He started his season with a victory in the April 16 Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II).

ANGST: Effinex Returns to Winning Ways in Oaklawn Cap

"He (worked) easy and good; he's fit," Jerkens said. "He always gallops out strong."

Although Effinex came down with a case of hives when he traveled to California and ran third in the March 12 Santa Anita Handicap (gr. I), Jerkens said the mysterious ailment has not reappeared for a while.

"Knock on wood, he's been good for about a month now," he said. "We still don't know what caused it. It started in Palm Meadows in Florida and then we had a terrible time for about six weeks after that. When he came back from California, he got it real bad again. We never could really figure it out. We thought it might be the type of shavings he was on, we changed that, and there really wasn't a whole lot in his diet that we changed.

"You like to be able to feed them good so they can keep their strength up, so I wasn't really for doing too much tampering with that. And it turned out it wasn't that anyway; he eventually got out of his system whatever was bothering him."

Effinex, by Mineshaft  , was the final foal out of the E Dubai mare What a Pear, and is Tri-Bone Stables' final runner in training.

"(The mare) died having him," Jerkens said. "And (racing manager Dr. Russell Cohen) said this is it, once he retires, they're not going to get into it any more. But for now, he's staying sound, knock on wood. He's got some funny-looking ankles, big, but they never flex bad. They're funny to look at, but that's just the way they are. We've never injected him, we've never had to stop him. We just stopped him over the winter because nothing to do over the winter anyway, you might as well take him out of training for a while and give him a break. He's trained hard, and he looks as sound to me as I did when I got him last year."



Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens will replace fellow Hall of Famer Mike Smith in the irons for Effinex's Foster run at Churchill Downs; Smith has the mount on champion Songbird in the Summertime Oaks (gr. II) at Santa Anita Park as she returns from the fever that sidelined her from the Longines Kentucky Oaks (gr. I). 



"Gary Stevens is riding him with the understanding if something happens and Songbird ends up not running, Mike gets the mount back," Jerkens said. "They have that kind of relationship with each other. 

"Effinex is the kind of horse where you have to leave him alone; you can't get into his mouth too much or he gets mad and starts doing stupid things like the day he bolted last year in the Brooklyn (gr. II). You've got to let him have his way, and Gary seems like that kind of a rider, I'm sure Mike's going to tell him stuff about him, so it should be OK."