Workforce to stay in training
Michael Stoute’s Derby and Arc hero missed his intended engagement at Churchill Downs on Saturday night due to the fast ground at the Kentucky track.
But now racegoers will get the chance to see him run again after connections decided not to send him off to stud just yet.
Owner Prince Khalid Abdullah's racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said: “We’ve a horse who is very important to us. He’s sizeable and scopey, and racing him on too-fast ground for him at this stage - this would have been only his sixth lifetime start - well, his future career is too important.
“Workforce will stay in training. He won’t run again this year.”
Workforce ran just the once as a juvenile before meeting his first defeat behind Cape Blanco in York’s Dante Stakes.
But he really made his name with a quite brilliant demolition of the Epsom field in June.
Then came that inexplicable flop behind stablemate Harbinger in the King George, before a renaissance with that gutsy Arc success at Longhamp.
Meanwhile, wonder mare Goldikova is to stay in training as a six-year-old following her historic third successive Breeders’ Cup Mile success.
The French-trained ace took her Group One tally to 12 thanks to her latest victory at Churchill Downs on Saturday and now her sporting connections believe it is worth having one more campaign with her.
However, owners Gerard and Alain Wertheimer and trainer Freddie Head will not map out a programme for Goldikova until she returns to Chantilly after spending the winter at stud.
“Gerard and Alain Wertheimer have decided to keep her in training after having talked with Freddie Head,” said the owners’ racing manager Pierre-Yves Bureau.
“Last year for the first time she was sent to the stud to wind down during the winter and when she came back she very easily won the Prix d’Ispahan before winning at Royal Ascot, an achievement which was a goal of her owners.
“She will return to the stud for a length that hasn’t been determined yet, that will be between two and three months, before she comes back to Chantilly, where her 2011 programme will be decided.”
