City Plan back on dirt for Sham Stakes

Racenews

4 January, 2018

Three-year-old colt City Plan steps back up in class on his return to dirt in the mile G3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, USA, on Saturday, January 6.

The Eoin Harty-trained son of Street Sense kept on well to score by three quarters of a length over the same distance on Tapeta in the non-graded Gold Rush Stakes at Golden Gate Fields on December 2.

City Plan came home seventh on his only previous appearance at Santa Anita in the G1 FrontRunner Stakes over an extended mile on dirt in September and won a mile maiden on dirt at Los Alamitos earlier the same month.

Tyler Conner, on board for the Gold Rush Stakes, keeps the ride on City Plan, who is drawn seven and tackles six rivals including G1 Los Alamitos Futurity runner-up McKinzie, G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf seventh My Boy Jack and G3 Bob Hope Stakes second Mourinho.

Eoin Harty said: “City Plan is a big three-year-old and is only now just starting to come into himself. He is doing extremely well and looks to be getting better with every day.

“It was a bit of surprise when City Plan broke his maiden last season as he is a big horse and then he came up against some very precocious two-year-olds in the FrontRunner Stakes.

“He was very impressive in the Gold Rush Stakes and has improved again since that run. This is a different class of race but I think that he will give a good account of himself.”