Trainer Joe Seekman and Sawgrass Farms came away from the $500,000 Hoosier Cup empty handed with the 10th-place finish of Annieswesterncard, but the connections locked in a return date to Hoosier Park Racing and Casino with 4-year-old Art Official.
A winner of $1.5 million last season, including a victory in the Hoosier Cup, Art Official is returning from a torn muscle that prematurely ended his sophomore campaign. Thanks to some quick work by Hoosier Park racing secretary Gregg Keidel, the Meadowlands Pace winner will his debut in the $200,000 Dan Patch Invitational June 20.
“He qualified well (May 27), and we plan to qualify him twice more,” Seekman said while in the grandstand paddock at the
Like clockwork, Keidel, moving from stall to stall conversing with the connections of each Hoosier Cup starter, walked up and extended an invitation on the spot.
“Obviously Art Official gets along with our surface,” he told Seekman. “You’ve got an invite.” With that, the Michigan-based trainer set his charge’s schedule with the Dan Patch in mind. Seekman noted that although they had originally targeted May as a return date for Art Official, he didn’t progress as well as they had hoped. Instead of rushing him back from the injury to take a shot at the Levy Series only to have him off until late June, the decision was made to gear him up a little later. In his first qualifying effort at “He’ll qualify the third and the 10th and come here on the 20th,” he said of the tentative plan. (By James Platz)
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