Bango looks to break fast in Forego Stakes
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Bango concluded the 2020 season with momentum. He now returns to the site of his biggest win looking for another stakes score in the $65,000 Forego Stakes at Turfway Park. The Forego, a 6 1/2-furlong sprint for older horses, is the fifth of eight races on Friday night’s card.
Bango, a Tamaroak Stable homebred, is trained by Greg Foley. Those connections tried the Congrats colt on the Kentucky Derby trail last year, where he finished ninth in the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes going 1 1/16 miles at Fair Grounds. He subsequently cut back to 6 1/2 furlongs and scored a sharp 2 1/2-length win in the Animal Kingdom Stakes at Turfway – albeit on the track’s former Polytrack synthetic surface, which has been replaced by Tapeta.
“I think his best races will be around one turn,” Foley said after the Animal Kingdom.
That opinion proved true. After finishing eighth in a Churchill Downs turf allowance and sixth in the Tom Ridge Stakes at Presque Isle, Bango won two of his final three starts to end 2020, all in dirt sprints in Kentucky. After an allowance/optional claiming win on Sept. 27 at Churchill Downs, he finished fourth in the Perryville Stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard at Keeneland, improving his position after breaking slowly. He rebounded for another allowance win on Nov. 26 at Churchill, defeating graded stakes winner Strike Power by 2 1/2 lengths. He earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 97, also the highest last-out figure in this field.
Bango will have Gerardo Corrales in the irons as he breaks from post 2 in the full field. His best races have come on or near the lead.
Next door to him in post 3 is familiar foe Guildsman, one of the more accomplished entrants in the field. Guildsman won the Tom Ridge Stakes last summer at Presque Isle Downs, besting Bango. Guildsman then captured the Grade 3 Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs. Trained by Brendan Walsh, he is now looking to rebound after a fifth, beaten three lengths, in the Grade 2 Nearctic at Woodbine and a ninth in the Richard R. Scherer Memorial last month at Fair Grounds.
Stakes-placed Escapade is coming off a second, beaten a head by Jeannie’s Beepbeep, in a conditioned allowance with a $50,000 claiming option at Turfway.
Made in America, making his stakes debut, also has strong local form. In four starts at Turfway in 2020, he won twice and finished a close second twice. His most recent runner-up effort came on the current Tapeta surface.