'Tough' Mor Spirit Puts in Final Work for Dirt Mile
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Photo: Zoe Metz/Santa Anita Park Photo
Mor Spirit works outside of stablemate Cat Burglar Oct. 29 at Santa Anita Park
Michael Lund Petersen's Mor Sprit has never been a very good work horse, so to get him cranked for the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), trainer Bob Baffert has had to get a little creative.
"I'm half horse trainer and half psychiatrist sometimes," the Hall of Fame trainer said. "Sometimes you gotta get them on the couch."
The formula for the 4-year-old Eskendereya ridgling, who once infamously pulled himself up during a work while he was on the Road ro rhe Kentucky Derby in 2016, has been to send him to the gate.
Mor Spirit's final work for the Dirt Mile came Oct. 29 and it was his sixth consecutive drill from the Santa Anita Park gate, a trick of sorts to keep him engaged during training—and he's responded. On Sunday he worked evenly with workmate Cat Burglar until the stretch run, and finished a length in front of his stablemate at the wire. He was clocked in 1:13 2/5 for six furlongs under jockey Martin Garcia.
"He's tough to train—tough to train, tough to do everything. He's just a tough horse," Baffert said. "He's a lazy worker and he never wins a work. That one time (in 2016) he just pulled up and (jockey) Gary (Stevens) said, 'What happened?' He just stopped."
Despite how he might behave in the mornings, Mor Spirit's performance on the racetrack in 2017 has been plenty impressive. He enters the Dirt Mile on a three-race win streak on three different racetracks, with victories in the March 18 Essex Handicap at Oaklawn Park, the May 7 Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3) at Lone Star Park, and the June 10 Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap (G1) at Belmont Park. The Met Mile was his second grade 1 victory, following a score in the 2015 Los Alamitos Futurity (G1).
Earlier in the 6:30 a.m. workout session, Baoma Corporation's Baffert-trained Alluring Star put in her final work for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). The Exchange Rate filly and Chandelier Stakes (G1) runner-up worked solo, but was obscured by darkness and fog in the backstretch. She caught a pair of workers from another trainer in the turn, easily moved by under Garcia, and finished up her five-furlong drill in 1:00 1/5.