Allowance races featured Thursday and Friday, with six stakes on Saturday
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As it prepares for a big card with six stakes on Saturday – dubbed Stephen Foster Preview Day – Churchill Downs sets the table with Thursday and Friday cards featuring allowance-level events.
Howling Time, who hinted at strong ability against tough competition in the 3-year-old class last year, makes his first start of the year in Thursday’s seventh race, a 6 1/2-furlong allowance-optional claiming race with a purse of $141,000.
Howling Time, trained by Dale Romans for the Albaugh family, won the Street Sense Stakes as a juvenile at Churchill Downs. Last year, Howling Time finished far back in the Fountain of Youth and Lexington, and then affirmed his affinity for Churchill with a front-running five-length victory going 1 1/16 miles on a sloppy track in May allowance. The runner-up was Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll.
In his next start, Howling Time again led the way and was nipped a nose at the wire by multiple Grade 1 winner Cyberknife at Churchill in the Grade 3 Matt Winn, with Rattle N Roll third. Howling Time was fourth behind Cyberknife and fellow multiple Grade 1 winners Taiba and Jack Christopher in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at 1 1/8 miles in what proved the final start of his 3-year-old campaign.
Howling Time’s two most recent works have been swift five-furlong moves at Churchill Downs. Cutting back to one turn for the first time since winning his debut in September 2021, he breaks from the rail in a field of eight under Martin Garcia.
In the fourth race, a $148,000 allowance-optional claimer at a mile on the turf, nine entrants in the field of 12 are dropping directly out of stakes company. Gentle Soul won the Colonel E.R. Bradley Stakes in January and then was second in the Grade 3 Fair Grounds and third in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds.
On Friday, all eyes will be on Scylla as the royally bred filly faces winners for the first time in the eighth race, a one-mile allowance-optional claiming race for 3-year-old fillies with a purse of $148,000. Scylla won her only start by 2 1/2 lengths with an 85 Beyer Speed Figure going six furlongs on April 15 at Keeneland. She has breezed five times at Churchill Downs since then for trainer Bill Mott.
Distance should be no problem for Scylla as she progresses. The Juddmonte homebred is by Tapit – sire of long-winded runners including four Belmont Stakes winners – and out of Eclipse Award champion mare Close Hatches. That makes her a full sister to three-time graded stakes winner and multimillionaire Tacitus, who won the Grade 2 Suburban at 1 1/4 miles and was second in the 2019 Belmont.
Saturday’s card is highlighted by the Grade 3, $225,000 Blame Stakes, designed as a local prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster on July 1. Probable entrants, according to Churchill Downs assistant racing secretary and stakes coordinator Dan Bork, include multiple Grade 1 winner Santin, along with Barber Road, Call Me Fast, Chess Chief, Happy American, Masqueparade, and Pioneer of Medina.
Saturday’s card includes five other $225,000 stakes: the Grade 3 Shawnee, Grade 3 Arlington, Grade 3 Regret, Aristides, and Audubon. Each leads into a corresponding race on the July 1 Foster program.
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