Backyard Heaven takes bold step in Alysheba

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In a city where horse racing is king and Louisville Slugger baseball bats are famous, trainer Chad Brown will be swinging for the fences when he runs Backyard Heaven in the Grade 2, $400,000 Alysheba on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs.

Although Backyard Heaven’s placement in the race vs. millionaires Good Samaritan, Hoppertunity, Awesome Slew, and 2017 Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming might appear ambitious for a horse who has won strictly a maiden race and a first-level allowance, such a quick analysis would overlook Brown’s success with such types of entries. Last year, he pulled off noteworthy stakes surprises when Cloud Computing won the Preakness and Good Magic took the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when they were eligible for far easier races.

As in those cases, Brown has faith in his runner, and views the conditions for Backyard Heaven as favorable, while still appreciating the competition, calling it a “tough field that should be a good test for this horse.”

Backyard Heaven has yet to gain national attention, having recorded his two wins at Aqueduct during the winter and spring. But his speed figures, particularly his latest when he ran a 108 Beyer Speed Figure in a March 17 win, likely won’t go unnoticed by bettors – and it hasn’t been by Brown.

“I think it’s time for him to step up in class and see what we have,” he said. “I momentarily thought about running him actually in the Charles Town (Classic), but I felt like he just needed a little bit more time. “

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The Charles Town Classic, a $1.2 million race, was run April 21.

Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Backyard Heaven, a 4-year-old colt by Tizway owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

The Alysheba, a two-turn dirt race for older horses at 1 1/16 miles, represents a homecoming of sorts for Always Dreaming, who runs at Churchill Downs for the first time since he won last year’s Kentucky Derby. He has lost four starts since, though a runner-up finish in the Gulfstream Park Mile on March 31 was respectable for a horse that had been out of action for seven months. Always Dreaming had been off since fading to ninth in last summer’s Travers Stakes.

His participation marks a rare Kentucky Derby week return for a Kentucky Derby winner. The last Derby winner to return to Churchill for a race over Oaks or Derby day was Go for Gin, the 1994 Derby winner who ran third in the 1995 Churchill Downs Handicap in the final race of his career.

As much as Always Dreaming should appreciate a return to Churchill Downs, he figures to enjoy a modest pace in the Alysheba even more. He seems the race’s lone front-runner under regular rider John Velazquez, with most of the others in the eight-horse field preferring to stalk or close from back.

That includes 5-2 morning-line favorite Good Samaritan, who beat Always Dreaming last year in the Jim Dandy at Saratoga after Always Dreaming set a pressured pace.

Good Samaritan, second in the Grade 1 Clark over the Churchill Downs strip last fall, won his lone start of 2018, the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Gorunds, though over a shallow field and after one of his chief rivals, The Player, was pulled up due to injury.

Other contenders in the Alysheba include Hoppertunity and Awesome Slew. Hoppertunity, the leading money earner in the field with a bankroll of more than $4.4 million, won the Grade 3 Tokyo City at Santa Anita on April 8, while Awesome Slew finished a wide second to the fast Army Mule in the Grade 1 Carter April 7 at Aqueduct.

Awesome Slew was cross entered into the seven-furlong Churchill Downs Stakes on Saturday, but trainer Mark Casse said Tuesday his inclination was to run him in the Alysheba. Neither race is perfect for him in terms of distance.

“I like a mile for him, but unfortunately they’re giving me seven-eighths or a mile and a sixteenth,” he said.

Though Awesome Slew has predominantly raced at one turn since joining Casse’s stable in early 2017, he ran well going two turns in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Del Mar in November, finishing a distant third behind Battle of Midway and Sharp Azteca.

Longshots Hence, Giuseppe the Great, and Hawaakom round out the field.