DEL MAR – Midnight Lute, the 2007 Breeders' Cup Sprint and Eclipse Award sprint division winner, ran a seven-furlong workout yesterday morning in a faster time than the track record for the distance.
With jockey Martin Pedroza up, Midnight Lute sped over the Polytrack surface in 1:21.60. The record, set by the filly Lethal Heat in the Fleet Treat Stakes on July 20, is 1:22.46.
Records are recognized only when established under racing conditions. The seven-furlong record when the track had a conventional dirt main surface was 1:20.00, set by Solar Launch in 1990 and matched by Lit De Justice in 1995.
Midnight Lute's trainer, Bob Baffert, had just returned from a week overseeing his stock at Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – and saddling Eclipse Award-winning filly Indian Blessing to win Saturday's Test Stakes there. Baffert said he was undecided about where Midnight Lute would run next, but the main options would appear to be the Grade II, $300,000 Pat O'Brien Handicap here Aug. 24 and the Grade I, $250,000 Forego Handicap at Saratoga on Aug. 30.
Grand designs for Lethal Heat
Trainer
Barry Abrams has an ambitious schedule planned for
Lethal Heat.
The 3-year-old filly is entered against males in today's seven-furlong, $100,000 Real Good Deal Stakes for California-breds. If all goes as planned, Abrams told Del Mar officials, Lethal Heat would come back eight days later in the $400,000, Grade I Del Mar Oaks against her own age group and gender at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
