It has been a lost summer at Saratoga Race Course for trainer Philip Bauer and his 5-year-old mare Played Hard .
Coming up here from Kentucky, Bauer planned to run the daughter of Into Mischief twice: first in the Shuvee Stakes (G2) July 23 and then in the Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) Aug. 25.
Played Hard, owned by Rigney Racing didn’t run in the Shuvee because of an elevated temperature and she won’t go in the Personal Ensign either.
“It was our decision this time,” Bauer said outside his barn at the Oklahoma Training Track Aug. 19.
Bauer did not nominate Played Hard to the Personal Ensign. Played Hard worked four furlongs on the Oklahoma Training Track in 48 seconds Aug. 17.
“Her drill was very good, not great,” he said. ” When your company kind of leaves you on the gallop out, you know you are gasping for some air and she showed that coming back here. We knew she was not where we wanted her to be. But we are getting there.”
Played Hard won the La Troienne Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs May 5 and was third in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park June 10. Overall, she has six wins, five seconds and three thirds in 16 career starts.
In the Personal Ensign, she would have been facing the giants of the older female division in Nest , Clairiere and Secret Oath .
“It is one thing when you are running through your conditions and you are a superior horse,” Bauer said. “When you’ve got to take down champions, you can’t be short.”
Played Hard will be pointed to the $400,000 Locust Grove Stakes (G3) at Churchill Sept. 16. She won that race last year.
“We know she likes Churchill and I don’t think Clairiere and Nest will be in that race,” Bauer said. “Not to say it will be an easy race, but we certainly won’t have to bang heads with those two. We just have to turn the page.”
