Manhattan Bluechip may not have been a household name heading into the Burlington Stakes last weekend. But after a solid performance in the NA Cup primer, the son of Art Major is no longer an obscure player

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Trainer Mark Austin has spoken with the Woodbine Entertainment Group media office about the colt.

“He raced awfully well last week,” Austin said. “He’s just a couple of starts short of where we need to be, to go with these colts."

The trainer explained that the road has not been all that smooth with Manhattan Bluechip this year, but he is pretty happy with where his pupil is at currently.

"He had some issues this spring -- he had some chips taken out of his ankles, which backed up his schedule a bit. Then he broke stride in his second qualifier early in May, which set us back another week. He’s a pretty nice colt. He just needs some racing.”

The colt has drawn into the third of the Pepsi North America Cup eliminations, which will feature a nice group of players.

"[Manhattan Bluechip] drew the eight hole, which isn’t necessarily the greatest, but it looks like there’s lots of early speed in his elim and he races better off cover, so maybe we can pick up the pieces.”

Click here to view a Trot Insider preview of the NA Cup elims.

Click here to view the entries.

(With files from WEG)