All signs point to General Jack in Friday allowance
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – By either a class or speed-figure assessment, General Jack is the most likely winner of Friday’s eighth race at Churchill Downs, a $52,000 first-level allowance for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf.
A stakes winner last year at 2, he has gradually rounded into form this year, with his most recent start, a fifth-place finish behind Global View in the Grade 2 American Turf on the Derby undercard, being his best race of 2014. That race earned him an 81 Beyer Speed Figure, the top last-race figure of any horse in the body of Friday’s field.
Dynamic Decision, the fourth also-eligible, just ran an 84 Beyer but seems unlikely to start given his placement on the also-eligible list.
Of those in the body of the race, only two, Sorpresa d’Oro and Sultry Cat, have run faster than an 81 Beyer in their careers, with both doing so two starts ago. Sorpresa d’Oro won a maiden race on dirt at Tampa Bay Downs in March with an 82 Beyer, and Sultry Cat ran an 83 in scoring at first asking at Keeneland when racing on Polytrack.
Untested on grass, they are out of dams who have dropped a pair of winners on turf.
Despite their encouraging produce records, General Jack will be heavily favored to win. He is the most battle-tested horse and the leading money earner, having made $87,536 for owners Tom Conway and Mike Maker, who is also his trainer.
Maker said he likes how General Jack has been coming around and was pleased with the colt’s effort in the American Turf, aside from the colt being intimidated when asked to rally up the hedge.
Rosie Napravnik rides General Jack, a 3-year-old son of Giant’s Causeway.
Sultry Cat might have upside with the surface switch to turf after running ninth in a dirt allowance on Derby Day. In contrast to his preceding start, when he won going away in a maiden race at Keeneland on Polytrack, he lacked a rally in the dirt race.
“He had a wide trip and took dirt in his face,” said trainer Kenny McPeek, excusing the loss.
A son of Bernstein, he notably is a half-brother to Bittel Road, a Stormy Atlantic colt who won the Grade 3 Woodford Reserve Bourbon Stakes on the Keeneland turf in 2008.