$53,000 finale on turf is Sunday's best race
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Family Adventure Day is held at Churchill Downs on the occasional Sunday, including this one, meaning Mom and Dad might have to do their handicapping of a nine-race card between trips to the bouncy house and the petting zoo.
Three allowances come well spaced as bookends of a program that gets under way at the usual 12:45 p.m. Eastern. For those who can’t shake loose long enough from the kiddos to perform their past-performance due diligence, here’s the crib notes for each of those races:
Race 1: Jordan’s Henny can be excused for failing to be much of a factor when 66-1 in the Kentucky Oaks, but she should make her presence known when facing just four other 3-year-old fillies going a one-turn mile in this first-level race with a $51,000 purse. Joe Rocco Jr. has the mount for trainer Mike Tomlinson.
All Laced Up, a sharp winner of her only start in April at Oaklawn Park, figures as the top threat for Ricardo Santana Jr. and Ron Moquett.
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Race 8: This is the male counterpart to the Sunday opener, and with seven betting interests, it should be a little more attractive to gamblers. A pair of gray colts, Silver Dust and Donwell, are top contenders after taking disparate routes in arriving here. Silver Dust fared respectably in Oaklawn’s series of Kentucky Derby preps, while Donwell was fourth as a lukewarm favorite under similar allowance conditions here on May 6.
Underpressure (third) and Hembree (fifth) also took part in the key Derby Day race won by No Mo Dough, who wheeled right back to win the Sir Barton Stakes on the May 20 Preakness card at Pimlico.
Race 9: The best was saved for last, as the day’s richest race also serves as the nightcap. An oversubscribed field of older horses going 1 1/16 miles on turf will vie for a $53,000 purse, with Forge, Western Reserve, and Speight Swiftly likely to vie for favoritism.
Galton, one of a handful entered for the optional $62,500 claiming tag, is a viable fringe player with his 3-for-5 record over the local course, while Cherry Wine will be looking to somehow regain the form that made him the runner-up to Exaggerator in the 2016 Preakness.