Why Artspeak Was Shut Down Early

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Published: May 25, 2015 08:33 am EDT

"I felt like the horse wasn't ready to go on anymore; he'd lost some weight and I thought if I'm going to have a great three-year-old that has to do the battles that he does, I'm going to put him away and not go to the Breeders Crown and keep him up for another month."

In a Saturday interview with Meadowlands' Justin Horowitz, trainer Tony Alagna discusses the reasoning behind not racing two-year-old divisional champion Artspeak in the 2014 Breeders Crown. Alagna notes that the decision was his call, and it was totally supported by the ownership group.

"The beauty of training for the ownership of that horse, similar to the Captaintreacherous group, is they said whatever you think is right by the horse, you do it. So that's what I did."

After winning his 2015 debut on May 16 in 1:49, Artspeak skipped this past Saturday night's New Jersey Sire Stakes leg but is pointed for the NJSS Final this coming Saturday, May 30. After that, the colt's schedule is still up in the air. Artspeak is the top choice in the 2015 Trot Magazine Pepsi North America Cup Spring Book.

"After that, we'll play it by ear. We have the Somebeachsomewhere schedule, we're not sure whether or not we'll go there...if we don't go there, we'll go to the North America Cup eliminations."

Alagna also discusses bringing back Captaintreacherous at four, why the current stakes schedule might have been more beneficial for him, and how he used to spend his Saturday nights as a teenager. The full interview is available below.

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