Minnesota-bred 2-year-old phenom Mr. Jagermeister has returned to the Valorie Lund barn following a two-month turnout. He worked Wednesday at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, covering three furlongs in 34.60 seconds, the fastest of 31 horses at the distance that day.
“He worked faster than I wanted him to,” Lund said. “But he did it, believe it or not, pretty easily.” Lund reports that Mr. Jagermeister returned following the workout “not really blowing and certainly did not look like a horse that worked that rapidly.”
The son of stakes winner Atta Boy Roy won two of four starts in 2017, breaking his maiden at first asking and winning the $85,000 Northern Lights Futurity, the premier race for 2-year-old Minnesota breds. He also finished second in a Prairie Meadows stake between those victories and on closing day at Canterbury ran second to Amy’s Challenge, one of the fastest fillies in the nation at that time, in the Shakopee Juvenile.
Lund was pleased with the colt’s development during the layoff. “He really widened out. He put on thickness.”
As for the first start for Mr. Jagermeister in 2018, Lund will likely look to California or New Mexico but she has not set a timeline. She looks to breeze him again in a couple of weeks and see where he stands before plotting a course with the intent of racing Jagermeister six or seven times with a heavy emphasis on a Minnesota campaign.
