Ack Ack can go in a lot of directions
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Grade 3 Ack Ack has all kinds of angles to consider in assessing its 29th running Saturday at Churchill Downs.
The field of 11 in the $300,000 Ack Ack includes an unbeaten 3-year-old, Beau Liam, stretching out in his stakes debut against older horses after earning gaudy Beyer Speed Figures of 106 and 107 in quickly making his way up the class ladder.
The one-turn-mile race also has a California shipper, Rushie, whose lone prior start at Churchill resulted in an eye-catching victory in the 2020 Pat Day Mile.
It also has a couple of other starters with last-out triple-digit Beyers – Exculpatory, the only other 3-year-old in the lineup, and Aloha West, a talented 4-year-old whose trainer, Wayne Catalano, said he is considering defecting in favor of the Phoenix on the Friday opening-day card at Keeneland.
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Add in stakes winners such as Mo Mosa and Plainsman, along with Mr Dumas going turf to dirt after needing his July comeback, and you have the makings of quite a horse race.
“We know how well Rushie ran in his one start over the track,” said trainer Michael McCarthy, referring to the 1 3/4-length score in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile last September going this same distance. “He’s coming into this the right way, so hopefully he can run it back.”
Javier Castellano is back from New York to ride Rushie, a gray Liam’s Map colt who will break from the far outside post. Right alongside will be another Liam’s Map colt, Beau Liam, whose perfect record and huge Beyers are enough to make him the 3-1 program favorite. A May 29 debut win at Churchill was followed by back-to-back allowance wins during trainer Steve Asmussen’s incredible summer at Saratoga.
Exculpatory, in from Delaware Park, could have run last Saturday in the seven-furlong Harrods Creek and stayed with fellow 3-year-olds, but trainer Mark Reid preferred the added distance and another week following the Aug. 27 Hilton Memorial at Charles Town, where the Mineshaft colt earned a career-best 100 Beyer.
Mo Mosa is looking to validate his 23-1 upset in the Grade 3 Sexton Memorial over a very sloppy Lone Star track on Memorial Day. The Mike Maker trainee is on a slight turnback exiting a couple of Grade 2 races at Del Mar.
Plainsman is a late-blooming 6-year-old who has won three of his last four for trainer Brad Cox, while Mr Dumas makes his second start following a lengthy layoff in a rare switch to the dirt following some exceptional turf efforts last year.
As for Aloha West, Catalano said he is “leaning toward” the six-furlong Phoenix but cautioned Thursday that a decision to scratch from the Ack Ack as the 7-2 second choice on the morning line “isn’t 100 percent.”
The rest of the field is Guest Suite, Ebben, Atoka, and South Bend.
The Ack Ack is the 10th of 11 races, with post time set for 5:26 p.m. Eastern. It is named for the Hall of Fame horse who was Horse of the Year in 1971, the first time that voting for year-end honors was consolidated among various entities into the Eclipse Awards. He also was the champion older male and sprinter that year.