Off brilliant Elkhorn win, Wilkes has big plans for Burnham Square

As easy and dominant as Burnham’s Square’s victory Saturday at Keeneland in the Elkhorn Stakes looked, his trainer, Ian Wilkes, firmly believes that was just the start of things.

Burnham Square didn’t make the lead in the Elkhorn, a three-turn, 1 1/2-mile grass race, until he hit the three-sixteenths pole, yet he finished so powerfully that he won by 9 3/4 lengths. Did world-class horses populate the Grade 2 Elkhorn? They did not, but runner-up Desvio won the Sycamore over 1 1/2 miles at Keeneland’s fall meet.

Burnham Square’s raw time of 2:32.55 produced a 106 Beyer Speed Figure, tops among North American turf runners this year. Last year, only two horses – Ethical Diamond and Rebel’s Romance, one-two in the Breeders’ Cup Turf – earned as high a figure in a grass race one mile or longer.

The Breeders’ Cup Turf is at Keeneland this year, and that’s where Wilkes, who trains Burnham Square for Whitham Thoroughbreds, hopes his horse ends up.

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Just a 4-year-old, Burnham Square has raced only three times on grass, finishing a close second in the $2.3 million Nashville Derby last summer at Kentucky Downs behind England-based group stakes winner Wimbledon Hawkeye, and second again this winter at Gulfstream in a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance. That race, shorter than ideal, served mainly as a prep, and its winner, Cruise the Nile, captured the Henry Clark Stakes on Saturday to remain unbeaten on turf.

“You don’t see many horses do what he did in a 1 1/2-mile turf race,” Wilkes said of Burnham Square on Sunday. “He came out of it so good he probably could run again tomorrow.”

Burnham Square won’t run this week, but Wilkes does plan to bring him back May 16 in the 1 1/2-mile Louisville Stakes at Churchill Downs. Wilkes will target the $2 million Turf Cup on Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs before the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but expect Burnham Square to have an active campaign before then, as Wilkes would rather race this horse than train him. And while Burnham Square’s a gelding, he’s not especially fond of shipping. Wilkes would prefer sticking close to home.

Burnham Square has filled out since his 3-year-old season, when he won the Grade 1 Blue Grass on dirt, and Wilkes said his pre-race comportment Saturday was better than it’s ever been. No surprise if Burnham Square at the end of this year, to say nothing of next year, turns into an even better grass horse.

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