Art Collector tries two turns in Bourbon Stakes

The Grade 3, $250,000 Bourbon Stakes is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In race, guaranteeing its winner automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Juvenile Turf.

A lot of good that’s done.

None of the 12 winners in the history of the Juvenile Turf won the Bourbon, in great part because eight of them shipped from overseas to trounce the North Americans. Which is not to say Sunday’s renewal of the Bourbon, carded for 1 1/16 miles on turf and restricted to 2-year-olds, lacks appeal. On the contrary, the race drew 14 runners, appears wildly competitive, and includes several entrants of clear talent.

Art Collector might be as talented as any of them, though he lacks the stakes credentials to prove it.

“We’ve been pretty excited about him from the start, which is why we took him to Saratoga,” said Joe Sharp, who trains Art Collector for owner-breeder Bruce Lunsford.

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Art Collector finished second at Saratoga debuting in a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint, beaten by Mystic Lancelot, who looks like a prime player earlier on this card in the Indian Summer Stakes. Second time out, Art Collector was second to none, easily winning a 6 1/2-furlong Kentucky Downs maiden race over 11 rivals. Those sprint races were good, and Art Collector, by Bernardini out of Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor, is bred to be even better racing over a route of ground.

“With his pedigree, he shouldn’t be distance limited by any means,” Sharp said.

Luis Saez has the mount Sunday, as he did at Saratoga, but jockey Adam Beschizza worked Art Collector over the Keeneland turf course for this start and told Sharp the colt relaxed beautifully. “I think everything is in his favor on the stretch-out,” Sharp said.

Sharp guesses Art Collector would handle a rain-softened grass course, which the weather forecast suggests is possible, but the more obvious task is handling a bevy of capable rivals.

Fighting Seabee already is a graded stakes winner, having captured the Grade 3 With Anticipation at Saratoga last out with a cozy front-running trip through soft fractions. But Fighting Seabee, trained by Ken McPeek, passed horses winning his career debut, a maiden race at Ellis Park, and didn’t find Saratoga success strictly because of good fortune.

Trainer Mark Casse won this race in 2015 with Airoforce, in 2016 with Keep Quiet, and in 2017 with Flameaway (when the Bourbon was rained onto dirt), and this year has two entrants, Peace Achieved and Prince of Thieves. Peace Achieved won the $500,000 Juvenile Stakes at Kentucky Downs last out, his second victory from four starts, but might have no edge Sunday on Prince of Thieves, whose morning-line odds are three-times higher. Prince of Thieves overcame trouble to win an Ellis Park turf sprint in his career debut, and after breaking slowly and conceding too much ground to the leaders in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint, he finished strongly to get third in that race before galloping out like a horse ready to move out to a longer distance.

Vitalogy moves into the barn of trainer Brendan Walsh after shipping from Ireland to Woodbine and finishing an encouraging third in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes, but post 14 on Sunday is less than encouraging.