Art Collector proves too much for Sleepy Eyes Todd in Charles Town Classic

Art Collector, one of the better 3-year-olds of 2020, is starting to look like a very decent 4-year-old stakes horse.

Transferred to trainer Bill Mott earlier this summer, Art Collector followed up on an encouraging victory in the restricted Alydar Stakes at Saratoga with a determined win over Sleepy Eyes Todd on Friday in the Grade 2, $800,000 Charles Town Classic.

Sleepy Eyes Todd won the 2020 Charles Town Classic and absolutely loves small ovals like the six-furlong Charles Town strip. After a demanding two-race campaign earlier this year in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, Sleepy Eyes Todd ran back soon after returning to the United States and was a shadow of his best self in the Bosselman Gus Fonner on April 24 at Fonner Park, but trainer Miguel Angel Silva had Sleepy Eyes Todd going good again for Friday night’s tilt.

Racing over a surface that had promoted front-runners in all the open stakes races earlier on the card, Sleepy Eyes Todd and jockey Ry Eikleberry seized the lead from Rushie going into the first of three turns as Art Collector ranged up three deep to press the pace.

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Art Collector, a Bruce Lundsford homebred by Bernardini out of the Distorted Humor mare, Distorted Legacy, came out of relative obscurity to stamp himself as one of the fastest members of his class with three wins, culminating in a decisive Blue Grass Stakes defeat of the excellent filly Swiss Skydiver, between May and July 2020. He missed an intended run in the Kentucky Derby last September because of a physical setback, finished a distant fourth in the Preakness Stakes, and meekly concluded his season with an eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. His 2021 debut, a sixth in the Kelly’s Landing over seven furlongs at Churchill in May, offered little hope Art Collector would get back to his best, but his Alydar win for Mott was solid, the Charles Town Classic at least as good.

With Luis Saez in the irons, Art Collector shadowed Sleepy Eyes Todd through a quarter-mile in 23.80 seconds and a half in 47.90. The pace seemed moderate given course conditions and after six furlongs in 1:12.40, it looked like the Classic would come down to the front-runners. Saratoga-based Saez, riding the tight Charles Town oval like it was his home track, made an early bid, attacking midway around the far turn and taking the lead at the quarter pole. A game Sleepy Eyes Todd cut the corner nicely and battled back to nearly get back on even terms at the eighth pole, the top of the stretch, but Art Collector had too much for the defending champ, edging clear late for a 1 1/2-length win. Art Collector, the favorite, paid $4.60 to win.

Rushie held on for third and was followed by Restrainedvengence, Noble Drama, and Ny Traffic, with a big gap back to Informative, Warriors Charge, and Air Token. Winning time for the 1 1/8 miles over a fast track was 1:49.49; only Moreno, the 2015 winner, ran a faster Charles Town Classic, clocking 1:48.81.

Beating Sleepy Eyes Todd on a Friday night in West Virginia is not exactly winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, but the Charles Town Classic was a legitimate race and Art Collector very much appears to be back on track now.