Amoss shoots for sweep of three Friday stakes
ALTOONA, Iowa – Tom Amoss, who trains about 40 horses from his Churchill Downs base and has a division of 24 at Indiana Grand Race Course, will fly three of his best runners to Prairie Meadows in an attempt to sweep Friday’s trio of Iowa Festival of Racing listed stakes.
Amoss has 100 winners for the year from 274 tries for a remarkable strike rate of 36 percent and has been “riding the crest of a wave all year,” he said. He will aim Flashy Campaign at the $100,000 Saylorville, Quiet Success at the $100,000 Iowa Distaff, and stable star Delaunay at the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap.
The Iowa Sprint Handicap, which attracted six veteran sprinters, features the return to Prairie Meadows of the Maggi Moss-owned Delaunay, who ran second as the 3-10 favorite behind Gentlemen’s Bet in last season’s renewal.
Delaunay, a 7-year-old Smoke Glacken gelding, was impressive in taking Churchill’s six-furlong, Grade 3 Aristides Stakes by 3 1/2 lengths May 31.
“Delaunay was back to his best in the Aristides, but we’re still looking for the consistency that he showed last year,” Amoss said. “Friday night’s race will go a long way to helping us find out if he has that consistency we’re looking for.”
Robby Albarado subs for Delaunay’s regular rider, the sidelined Rosie Napravnik.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 5 Delaunay (8-5 morning line). Trainer Tom Amoss has a 30 percent win rate with all horses over the past five years, but is only 1 for 16 with a $0.30 ROI in sprints at Prairie Meadows. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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Work All Week, a lightly raced 5-year-old bred and owned by Midwest Thoroughbreds, which leads the nation in wins with 138, has been steadily climbing the class ladder during his current six-race win streak. Freshened by trainer Roger Brueggemann since winning Oaklawn’s $100,000 Hot Springs Stakes on March 8, the City Zip gelding has reeled off a string of sharp breezes over Arlington’s Polytrack. Chris Emigh comes in for the ride.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 3 Work All Week (5-2 morning line). Exits strong race where he beat three contenders in here, and 5 of the 7 contenders followed with a Beyer of at least 90. Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
Alsvid, 4 for 5 here for trainer Chris Hartman, who reached 1,000 career wins Sunday, won the May 24 Prairie Express by a half-length, beating fellow Iowa Sprint entrant Apprehender. Alsvid, who possesses good tactical speed, has trained forwardly over this strip.
According to trainer Chris Richard, Apprehender has “changed his running style all on his own and just wants to lay back and make one big run.” He is expected to finish strongly under David Mello, the meet’s leading rider with 64 wins.
Mico Margarita, who set the Evangeline Downs six-furlong track record of 1:08.37 when winning the April 12 Oak Hall Stakes, and the hard-knocking Frederico also will line up.
The Saylorville, a six-furlong sprint for fillies and mares, drew 11, including the defending champ, Livi Makenzie, and has a wide-open look.
Flashy Campaign, who has raced over seven furlongs to a mile in her last seven tries, showed her natural speed Monday when working a bullet half-mile in 47.40 seconds at Churchill Downs. According to Amoss, Flashy Campaign is “sharp at the moment, so the turn back doesn’t concern me.”
In her last race, a May 9 allowance at Churchill in which she ran fourth, beaten three lengths by the stakes winners Gold Medal Dancer and Hitechnoweenie, Flashy Campaign “got stuck in behind horses and wasn’t able to give her true running,” Amoss said.
Dancin’ Lil and American Sugar, who have been based here since April, also are expected to vie for favoritism. Claimed for a mere $20,000 on Feb. 20, Dancin’ Lil posted the field’s top last-race Beyer Speed Figure of 87 in her 1 1/4-length Oaklawn allowance score April 4 and returns for trainer Federico Villafranco and the meet’s leading owner, Danny Caldwell, who is 24 for 64 here.
Villafranco and his stable rider, Ramon Vazquez, who tend to leave plenty in the tank during morning breezes, had Dancin’ Lil pick it up noticeably when she worked a bullet four panels in 47.96 on June 19.
American Sugar, a Lynn Chleborad-trained 4-year-old who has won stakes over this track in all three years she has been in training, won the $50,000 Prairie Rose Stakes on May 24 by a half-length with a strong five-wide rally.
“She has never been better in all the time I’ve had her,” Chleborad said. “We just hope there’s enough pace in there to set up her late move.”
The 1 1/16-mile Iowa Distaff, with nine fillies and mares, could be controlled from the outset by the Amoss-trained 5-2 morning-line favorite, Quiet Success. Second by a neck as the 3-5 favorite in Charles Town’s Sugar Maple Stakes in April, Quiet Success handled the turns around that six-furlong oval, but Amoss said, “The dimensions of the track at Prairie Meadows should suit her very well.”
Diva’s Diamond, a force at Hawthorne against Illinois-breds, is not as effective over Arlington’s Polytrack and will ship in from Chicago for jockey turned trainer Carlos Silva. The 6-year-old Crafty Shaw mare has finished in the top three 14 of 16 times on dirt tracks and gets the services of jockey Channing Hill for the first time.
Hitechnoweenie, another Churchill-based shipper trained by Ken McPeek, has run three times here, including a win in the 2013 Panthers Stakes and a second-place finish, beaten 1 1/4 lengths by Distaff rival Hung the Moon, in the May 26 Wild Rose.
In addition to the steadily improving Hung the Moon, trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel sends over Clarinda for the Distaff and a pair of sprinters, Elitism and Even Song, in the Saylorville.