Weaver Weighing Options with Colloquial

[Wandering Eyes]

In 'TDN Rising Star' Colloquial (Vekoma), George Weaver trains what looks like the fastest 3-year-old male in the U.S. Last week at Aqueduct he won a maiden race by seven lengths while earning a Beyer figure of 106. The 106 is easily the fastest number run so far this year by a 3-year-old.

For some owners, a race that good would have afflicted them with Derby Fever and their horses would wind up in traditional Derby preps. But owners Jack Wolf, Curtis Harrell and their partners have said that all racing decisions will be made by Weaver, who is still mulling his options

That's not a bad thing. Weaver is careful and practical. On the one hand, trying to squeeze in the Derby after the horse broke his maiden in a sprint race in February may be way too much to ask. On the other hand, might he be so talented and fast that anything is possible. If he thinks that Colloquial could win the Derby, then don't his owners deserve a chance to win the $5-million race?

These are nice problems to have, at least for now, Weaver is exploring all possibilities and ruling out nothing. The only firm decision he has made is that Colloquial will have six or seven weeks off before his next race.

“Because he ran so fast, the only thing I am committed to is giving him some time,” the trainer said. “I am a big believer that if we tried to bring him back on short rest it would backfire. With the number he ran being so fast, giving him a six or seven-week break now would be ideal to me. He gets back here to Florida on Friday and we'll see how he's doing and go from there.”

Weaver is the first to admit that trying to force his way into the Derby so quickly and with so little preparation is a risky proposition.

“I'm not sure the horse will run two turns,” he said. “But we're at that time of the year with these 3-year-olds where it's not hard to get that Triple Crown fever. We'll keep all of our options open. If the Gotham were back in five weeks, I'd probably be tempted to try it. It's a one-turn mile. But running him would mean bringing him back in three weeks and I'm not going to do that.”

Nonetheless, he hasn't slammed the door on trying a traditional Derby prep in the horse's next start.

“If you ran him in one of the major Derby preps and if he won you could go to the Derby, if you wanted to. But it doesn't feel like a realistic goal,” Weaver said. “But you never know. Times have changed. It used to be that you had to go into the Derby with a seasoned horse. Now, more and more every year, some of the more highly regarded horses in the Derby field are horses that didn't get started until they were three.”

At this point, it looks like the safer bet is to concentrate on sprint races restricted to 3-year-olds. An obvious goal would be the GI Woody Stephens Stakes, which is run during the Belmont Stakes festival at Saratoga. What if Colloquial had distance limitations, but turns into an outstanding sprinter?

“I'd definitely be OK with that,” Weaver said. “It's my responsibility to my owners to put all of these options out there.  Sometimes owners would like to see them run long. I don't know if this horse will go long. If I owned him myself, I would try to get to the Woody Stephens and pick the best path to get there and after that I'd think about stretching him out. With the 3-year-olds they only get one shot at the Triple Crown races. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made. Maybe we will stretch him out in his next start and see what he wants to do.”

“Maybe he will go two turns. He's out of a Bernardini mare, but it's still a big question mark. We're glad to have him. If I can keep him healthy all year, he's going to be a big force.”

Colloquial is by Vekoma, who Weaver also trained. Vekoma, last year's leading freshman sire, flopped in the 2019 Derby when finishing 12th, but he was a completely different horse the next year when Weaver raced Vekoma only in one-turn races. He won all three of his starts during his 4-year-old year, including the GI Carter and the GI Metropolitan H. To train what might turn out to be one of Vekoma's fastest sons brings back a lot of memories for Weaver.

“We've been lucky enough to get some good horses in our barn,” Weaver said. “Not a lot of them, but we've had quite a few nice horses. Vekoma is obviously one of them. It's amazing when they show up. The appreciation we have for a good horse is unbelievable. It's about the horse. Saratoga County was my first good one. With horses like him and Vekoma, it didn't really matter what I did with them. I just tried to keep them healthy. You didn't need to worry so much about what you did with them between races because when you led them over in the afternoon, they always showed up. You think about how much they do for you and your family. With how well Vekoma is doing at stud, it's like we're now being able to relive his greatness.”

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