After a Midwest-wide search for a suitable race, Two Emmys gets to run out of his own barn
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Twice thwarted in his attempts to bring Two Emmys back to the races this spring, trainer and co-owner Hugh Robertson has found a spot for his talented turf horse.
Most recently second behind Grade 1 winner Colonel Liam in the March 20 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds, Two Emmys was shipped from Arlington to Canterbury Park to start May 19 in the Brooks Fields Stakes, but returned to Chicago without racing after the Brooks Fields had to be moved from turf to dirt because of rain. Robertson then entered Two Emmys at Churchill Downs, but didn’t ship him because of a forecast heavy rain. The rain came, but Churchill kept the race on grass.
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No shipping, it turned out, was required, as Two Emmys is part of a good grass allowance race, the featured second, on Saturday’s eight-race program at Arlington. The race has multiple allowance conditions – including a basic nonwinners-of-three-other-than condition – and a $62,500 claiming option, is carded for 1 1/16 miles, and drew six entrants.
A surface switch seems unlikely with Chicagoland locked in severe drought and Arlington’s grass course looking as dry as it’s ever been. There’s a good chance of rain Thursday night into Friday, but precipitation likely would only help the turf.
Two Emmys is a late-developing English Channel gelding whom Robertson purchased at a 2017 yearling auction for a mere $4,500. The Grade 2 Muniz marked his stakes debut, and Two Emmys, who thrived on the Fair Grounds grass course the last two winters, set a modest pace and easily held off everyone save Colonel Liam, who was coming off a win in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf. Robertson has designs on the $150,000 Arlington Stakes over 1 3/16 miles on July 17, and said Two Emmys appears to have held his form despite the delay in racing.
“I’m surprised this race went,” said Robertson, who was poised to enter Two Emmys in the June 23 Mystic Lake Mile at Canterbury. “Staying here should be easier on him, and he seems to be doing fine. He’s a good work horse, not crazy fast, but good. He’s a little tiny horse, about 15-2, probably doesn’t even weigh 1,000 pounds, so he doesn’t need all that much training.”
Two Emmys has rateable speed and there is plenty of pace entered in the Saturday allowance. Bizzee Channel, another 5-year-old, whose $230,000 bankroll exceeds Two Emmys’s by about $65,000, gets a 117 TimeformUS early pace rating, Real Story a 115. Those two should be forward factors with Two Emmys sitting a good trip right behind. Four-year-old Atone, trained for Godolphin by Eoin Harty, showed turf talent over the winter at Tampa Bay and races for the first time as a gelding.
◗ Trainer Chris Davis intends to try Naval Laughter in a first-level turf allowance race as an encore to her June 3 Polytrack tour de force at Arlington.
Away from the races for more than 18 months following her lone start, Naval Laughter won an Arlington maiden route by 19 3/4 lengths, posting a very strong 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Naval Laughter, by Midshipman out of In Stitches, by Medaglia d’Oro, was bred by Tony Braddock’s Two Hearts Farm and was sold at auction in 2018. Two Hearts bought her back after Naval Laughter suffered a tendon injury that required ample time to heal, Davis said.
“I’m not going to do anything crazy,” Davis said. “I’ll run her wherever I can get a race on grass.”
Prairie Meadows
It’s rare for high-level 3-year-old American racehorses to face their elders before the fall, but 3-year-old filly Kela’s Turn is the even-money morning-line favorite facing older rivals in the $60,000 Mamie Eisenhower Stakes on Saturday at Prairie Meadows.
Kela’s Turn faded badly in the Songbird Stakes last fall at Keeneland, her only foray into open company, but has won her other four starts, Iowa-bred races at Prairie Meadows, by more than 28 combined lengths. Very fast into stride, Kela’s Turn thumped older Iowa-bred allowance foes in her 2021 debut before an easy win over 3-year-old fillies in the Bob Bryant Stakes. Henry Guillory Jr. trains her for Loretta McClintock.
The $60,000 John Wayne, a six-furlong Iowa-bred race for 3-year-olds and up, drew a much tougher group than the Eisenhower. Nine were entered and several horses are capable of posting Beyer Speed Figures in the mid to high 80s, which is strong for the class level.
First post for this mixed-breed card is 6 p.m. Central, with the stakes going as races 7 and 9.