Amoss starts sophomores against elders in allowances

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Given a choice, most trainers would rather run their 3-year-olds within their own age category, although racing offices tend to match them up against older horses with greater frequency as a calendar year unfolds.

Tom Amoss will run a couple of 3-year-olds against their elders Sunday at Churchill Downs, where a pair of $54,000, second-level allowances serve as co-features on a nine-race card. Amoss will send out Kiss to Remember in the first of those (race 5) and Kendall’s Boy in the second (race 8).

Kendall’s Boy probably rates the better chance of the pair. The Sky Mesa colt made an immediate splash last summer at Saratoga when earning a 94 Beyer Speed Figure as the runner-up to Havana in a maiden race, after which he has gone hot-and-cold, to Amoss’s dismay.

“He was probably my most exciting 2-year-old last year,” Amoss said. “He had some minor, minor things that kind of held him back, but then we brought him back at Fair Grounds in January and he won off, so I got excited about him again.”

In two subsequent tries at Oaklawn Park, however, Kendall’s Boy was way up the track.

“He had a couple of little things go wrong, but he really is doing good right now,” Amoss said. “Talent-wise, I think he’s got enough to win this kind of race Sunday.”

Kendall’s Boy, with Leandro Goncalves to ride, is one of three 3-year-olds among a full field of 12 in the eighth, which goes at 6 1/2 furlongs. Treasury Bill and Bull Dozer are among the other logical contenders in a well-matched lineup.

In the earlier allowance, Kiss to Remember is one of two 3-year-olds in a field of seven fillies and mares, along with Mufajaah, a Dan Peitz-trained filly who has been regrouped since finishing well beaten following a poor start in the Grade 3 Eight Belles on the May 2 Kentucky Oaks undercard.

“She pretty much lost her race at the break,” Peitz said. “I’d maybe run her too many times anyway, so I just backed off on her and let her catch her breath. She is doing well coming into this, and I’m expecting her to run big. I don’t know if she can beat these older fillies, but I do think she’ll show up.”

Mufajaah will be ridden by Joe Johnson from post 3 in the seven-furlong race. Her best efforts came this winter at Oaklawn, where she followed a flashy maiden win with an even more impressive first-level allowance score.

Jamaican Smoke, a stakes-seasoned 5-year-old exiting the Grade 3 Winning Colors, figures as the one to catch and beat in the fifth.

First post Sunday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the fifth going at 2:45 and the eighth at 4:18.

After Sunday, Churchill goes dark for the usual three days before the final four-day stretch of the 38-day spring meet resumes Thursday. Closing day is next Sunday.