Bound for Nowhere kicks off 8-year-old season on Saturday
Two surprising names – one a horse, the other a jockey – showed up in the Fair Grounds entries for Saturday.
Bound for Nowhere, one of the best turf sprinters in North America since 2018, is set to make his 8-year-old debut in a high-end allowance race, carded for about 5 1/2 furlongs on grass, with an $80,000 claiming option. Bound for Nowhere was shipped to Fair Grounds earlier this week from his winter base at Turfway Park, and if Saturday’s races stay on grass, John Velazquez will fly to New Orleans from Southern California to ride him.
Ron Anderson, Velazquez’s agent, confirmed that Velazquez also had received permission to take calls for Saturday’s card at Santa Anita and wouldn’t travel if it appeared Saturday’s Fair Grounds races would be rained off turf.
The National Weather Service as of Wednesday called for a chance of thunderstorms through 1 p.m. on Friday.
Bound for Nowhere won his second Shakertown Stakes last April at Keeneland, but trainer Wesley Ward doesn’t want to run him in that race next month because he’s targeting the Shakertown with Golden Pal, North America’s leading turf sprinter last year. Bound for Nowhere could start in a Keeneland allowance race but Ward said the horse is ready now.
Bound for Nowhere hasn’t raced since Aug. 6, when he finished fifth in the Troy Stakes at Saratoga, the worst turf-sprint performance of his career. But the horse, whom Ward owns, has started only 17 times and his trainer thinks he’s not done yet.
“He’s so lightly raced, there’s still racing left in him,” Ward said. “To watch him train, you’d think so.”