POSITIVE RESPONSE (Pomeroy), BLUE LASER (Bluegrass Cat) and TWINSPIRED (Harlan's Holiday) lead a field of nine three-year-olds entered for Saturday's $100,000 John Battaglia Memorial S. at Turfway Park.
At 1 1/16 miles, the race is the final local prep for the Spiral S. (G3) on March 26.
Positive Response comes in to the Battaglia off a third in the El Camino Real Derby (G3) on the synthetic Tapeta at Golden Gate Fields three weeks ago. Immediately before that he collected three straight wins, including the Gold Rush S. and California Derby, also at Golden Gate.
Blue Laser won the Grey S. (Can-G3) on the Polytrack at Woodbine in October but has not raced since he was pulled up in the November 20 Delta Downs Jackpot (G3). He was taken out of that race when Aces N Kings (Jet Phone) blew the far turn and bolted into Blue Laser's path.
Before that misfortune, Blue Laser had two wins and a third in three starts, all at Woodbine. He has been training at Palm Meadows in Florida for his return and last week traveled to Ocala Training Center for a work over an all-weather surface, breezing five furlongs in 1:00.
Twinspired won the second local prep for the Spiral, turning a wide trip into a 4 1/4-length victory in in the one-mile WEBN S. at Turfway on February 5. His only other win, and top-three placing, came in his maiden debut win at Keeneland last October.