Cowboy Culture rallies to Centaur Stakes win, Rhinestone Romeo returns $130 in A.J. Foyt

Cowboy Culture squeezed between horses in midstretch and burst clear to win the $200,000 Centaur Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths Wednesday at Indiana Grand.

It was the fifth win in seven starts for Cowboy Culture, who added the Centaur to previous stakes wins in the Keith Gee – where he beat Haskell Invitational winner Girvin – and the Arlington Classic earlier this year.

Cowboy Culture won his first three races, then ran below form at Gulfstream and Keeneland before bouncing back with a dominant victory May 27 at Arlington. Wednesday’s was his first race since, but Cowboy Culture was plenty ready.

“He had a minor setback, but we got him regrouped, and he definitely shows he’s maturing,” said Ricky Giannini, the Indiana-based assistance to trainer Brad Cox.

Cox said earlier this week that Cowboy Culture seemed sharp and figured to race in at least fairly close attendance to the leaders in the Centaur, a one-mile grass race. But after breaking well enough from post 1 under Florent Geroux, Cowboy Culture dropped to the tail of the field and was last into the first turn.

“When the horse wasn’t taking me where I wanted to be, I let him alone,” Geroux said.

Longshot Balandeen set tepid splits of 24.28 for the first quarter-mile and 48.80 to the half as Cowboy Culture, racing inside, continued to trail. Into the far turn, Cowboy Culture had crept closer to the front, and when Dawn Raider vacated the fence to make a run, Geroux came up the rail inside Judah and was within striking distance turning for home. Steered a couple of paths off the fence, Cowboy Culture had to wait for room, finally coming between horses inside the final furlong and easily outkicking the rivals still in front of him.

“He ran them down like a good horse,” Giannini said. “A good turf horse knows how to explode when the openings are there.”

Off a six-furlong fraction of 1:12.59 and seven furlongs in 1:24.81, Cowboy Culture was timed in 1:36.41 for the mile on turf that was rated firm, but might have been closer to good. Cowboy Culture, who ran his last quarter-mile in about 23 seconds, paid $3.20 to win.

Cowboy Culture is by Quality Road out of English Willow, by Smart Strike, and is owned by Head of Plains Partners LLC and Cheyenne Stables LLC. Giannini mentioned the Bryan Station Stakes at Keeneland and the Commonwealth Cup later this fall at Churchill Downs as possible upcoming starts for Cowboy Culture.

Rhinestone glitters in Foyt

Jay Holden has been training racehorses since 1991, but it wasn’t until Rhinestone Romeo posted a 64-1 upset in the $106,200 A.J. Foyt that he won a stakes race.

Holden had gone winless with 32 previous stakes starters, and few would have forecast this longshot becoming his first. No doubt, Rhinestone Romeo had improved since being switched to turf earlier this summer, and 64-1 was too long a price, but the horse’s only previous turf win had come in a $25,000 non-winners-of-two claimer, and Rhinestone Romeo clearly ran the race of his life Wednesday.

Under Samuel Bermudez, Rhinestone Romeo raced 10th of 11 midway through the Foyt, but came with a long sustained run to narrowly beat Logan Creek, a 22/1 shot. Logan Creek lost by just a head and was only a nose better than 11/1 Aristomaches in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for Indiana-breds. Rhinestone Romeo paid $130.80 to win and keyed a $2,850 exacta and a $16,170 fifty-cent trifecta.

Rhinestone Romeo was timed in 1:42.63. The 6-year-old gelding, by Colonial Colony out of Diamond Dayjur, was bred and is owned by Arven Holden and Jay Holden.