Rose Petal Stable’s 3-year-old Copper Tax, a three-time stakes winner at Laurel Park that has not run since late June, continues to train forwardly for his return to the races.

Rose Petal’s Chris Loso said a decision was made to give Copper Tax a break after the bay son of Grade 2 winner Copper Bullet earned graded-stakes credentials when he finished third in the June 22 Ohio Derby (G3) at Thistledown, his most recent start.

Triple Crown-nominated Copper Tax had earned an automatic berth in the 149th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, May 18 at Pimlico Race Course for his victory in Laurel’s April 20 Federico Tesio, but after some consideration was rerouted to Ohio.

“We wanted to rest him for a while,” Loso said. “We were thinking about racing him over the summer, but he had had a lot of races early in the season. When we decided not to run him at the Preakness we ran him in the Ohio Derby and he did well there. He came in third and was driving at the end. I think he had a real good shot at doing even better, but it is what it is. I think he did well.”

The Ohio Derby was Copper Tax’s ninth start in 10 months dating back to successive allowance scores last September at Delaware Park, where he broke his maiden two months earlier. His most recent wins have come in the 2023 James F. Lewis III, March 23 Private Terms and Tesio, all at Laurel.

“He’s healthy, he’s strong and I think that time off has been good, just to give him a rest in general. There’s nothing wrong with him, we just wanted to make sure he was going to continue to do well,” Loso said. “I think the way he’s been training and getting ramped back up, I think he’s in a good place. We’re looking forward to what we want to do in terms of races coming up in the near future.”

Copper Tax has breezed eight times since returning to the work tab in late August, including a bullet five-furlong move from the gate in 1:01 Oct. 9 and another five-eighths in 1:02.20 Oct. 16.

“When I was watching the various videos about the Ohio Derby, I think a lot of people weren’t giving him enough credit,” Loso said. “First and foremost, we care about the health of the horse. I think he was a little bit tired, and we didn’t want to risk it by continuing to run. A 3-year-old horse is young. People don’t realize that they’ve got a lot of life in them, so we just wanted to conserve that to make sure that we can run him in the future.”

Laurel’s final stakes race for 3-year-olds in 2024 is the $100,000 City of Laurel sprinting seven furlongs over Thanksgiving weekend Saturday, Nov. 30. Laurel also hosts the six-furlong Dave’s Friend and 1 1/8-mile Richard W. Small Nov. 23 and 1 1/16-mile Robert T. Manfuso Dec. 21, all for 3-year-olds and up.

“Right now we’re just ramping him up for running him later this fall and getting him ready for next year’s campaign,” Loso said. “We’ve talked about different races coming up, but we haven’t pegged any of them yet. We should know in the near future, for sure.”

With Capuano as agent, Rose Petal purchased two colts at Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky October yearling sale this week – a son of four-time Grade 1 winner, multimillionaire and 2020 champion older male Improbable for $25,000, and a son of Grade 1-winning millionaire Spun to Run for $16,000.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST OFF TO THE RACES RADIO!