Mohaymen returns to worktab with three-furlong breeze

Edited Press Release

Shadwell Stable's multiple Grade 2 winner Mohaymen returned to the worktab Thursday morning with a three-furlong breeze at the Greentree Training Facility adjacent to Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, the three-year-old Tapit colt was caught in :36.40 over the all-weather surface in his first timed breeze since finishing fourth in the May 7 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs.

"He worked great, galloped out in :49 and wouldn't have blown out a match," said McLaughlin, who was on hand for the breeze. "We're on our way to working weekly leading up to his next start."

Mohaymen's next work is expected to be over Saratoga's main track, which is scheduled to open for training on Friday, July 1. The 148th summer stand kicks off its 40-day stay on Friday, July 22.

McLaughlin is looking at either the $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) on July 30 at Saratoga or the $1 million Haskell Invitational (G1) on July 31 at Monmouth Park for Mohaymen's comeback race.

The 1 1/8-mile Jim Dandy is Saratoga's traditional hometown prep for the $1.25 million Travers Stakes (G1) on August 27, which the connections are targeting as Mohaymen's primary summer goal.

Mohaymen won each of his first five career starts, capping his two-year-old season with victories in the Nashua Stakes (G2) and Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The gray colt opened 2016 with triumphs in the Holy Bull Stakes (G2) and Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park before running fourth in a showdown with eventual Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist in the Florida Derby (G1) on April 2.

Following the Kentucky Derby, Mohaymen got some time off at Shadwell's farm in Kentucky before joining McLaughlin's upstate string at Greentree.

"Mohaymen went home right after the Derby, just for a once over. He was fine; a clean bill of health," McLaughlin said. "We were never going to go to the (June 11) Belmont (Stakes [G1]). He's doing great and pointing for the Jim Dandy-Travers. We might look at the Haskell, we'll see, but that's the weekend we're looking at."

Mohaymen photo courtesy of Adam Coglianese Photography