Wonder Gadot Drills for Apple Blossom
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Wonder Gadot is set for a return to grade 1 company at Oaklawn Park
Queen's Plate Stakes winner Wonder Gadot was among the first horses to work the morning of March 30 at Oaklawn Park. She ended up being the fastest, too.
Breezing over a fast surface just after the track opened, Wonder Gadot recorded a five-furlong bullet in :59 flat in advance of a scheduled start in the April 14 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) for older fillies and mares.
Clockers caught Wonder Gadot in fractions of :23 3/5 for her opening quarter, :36 1/5 for three furlongs, and galloping out to six furlongs in 1:11 1/5. Wonder Gadot's three-furlong split was faster than the bullet for that distance (:36 3/5), and her five-furlong time was the best among 30 published at the distance.
A finalist for a Sovereign Award as Canada's champion 3-year-old filly of 2018, Wonder Gadot (by Medaglia d'Oro ) finished second in her 2019 debut, a March 8 allowance at one mile, for owner Gary Barber and trainer Mark Casse. She worked a half-mile in :49 4/5 March 23 in her first move back from that race.
"It was a solid work for her today," rider David Cohen said. "They were looking for that type of work. She probably got just as much, if not more, mentally out of that last race than she did physically. She galloped out very strong, and we are definitely seeing a new side of her, from working her prior to then racing and coming out of that. Her last two works, she's been really feeling strong."