Born Great seeks to rekindle September success

Born Great had one great week this past September and will try to build on that in the featured sixth race Wednesday at Fair Grounds.

Now a 5-year-old, Born Great had his first official workout in March 2018, but didn’t make the races until June 2020. In his second start, on Sept. 9 at Kentucky Downs, he won nicely going 6 1/2 furlongs in maiden competition. His connections brought him back just one week later and Born Great swamped first-level allowance foes at the same distance, winning by nearly six lengths.

“He had his issues in his earlier days, which prevented him from racing, but he’s talented,” trainer Brendan Walsh said.

Born Great so impressed with the Kentucky Downs one-two punch that he was tried in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile in October. Born Great faded to finish ninth, but the two-turn mile as much as the strong competition might have proved his undoing.

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“I don’t think he got the mile, really,” Walsh said.

Born Great, by Scat Daddy, is a half-brother to Four Wheel Drive, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint in 2019. Walsh cut his horse back to a 5 1/2-furlong sprint Dec. 11 at Fair Grounds and Born Great finished strongly for second while racing over a turf course strongly promoting front-runners at the time. The course has since moderated, playing fairer to a diversity of running styles, and Walsh believes Born Great should be sharper this time than last.

That should make him formidable in this second-level allowance with a $40,000 claiming option that drew only six entrants for turf. Madison’s Luna was entered main-track-only, but the weather forecast suggests the 5 1/2-furlong Wednesday feature will stay on turf.

Besides Born Great, only the fourth-place finisher, Power End, comes back from the Dec. 11 turf sprint at this class level, so the short field has several horses new to the division. Among them is Real News, who drops from four straight stakes starts and races for his first claiming tag. Real News finished fifth, beaten only 1 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint in September at Churchill Downs, but the fact he runs for a $40,000 tag Wednesday makes one wonder if he’s currently capable of a performance like that.

Real News raced in the Richie Scherer Memorial on Dec. 19 at Fair Grounds and finished sixth without ever mounting much of a challenge.

*** Monomoy Girl, who will be named champion older dirt mare of 2020, continued on her steady work pattern since arriving at Fair Grounds, working a half-mile in 48.80 Jan. 3. Monomoy Girl is being aimed at the Bayakoa Stakes next month at Oaklawn.