Burnham Square has Chorleywood over a barrel
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The trainer Ian Wilkes said weeks, if not months ago, that he planned to run the budding long-distance turf star Burnham Square in the $225,000 Chorleywood Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
What’s not surprising: The Churchill morning line sets Burnham Square as the 2-5 favorite. What is surprising: Eight other horses went into the race.
None of them will come close to beating Burnham Square in this 11-furlong turf contest if Burnham Square comes close to the performance level established in his last two starts, his first attempts at three-turn turf racing.
At Keeneland in April he won the 1 1/2-mile Elkhorn Stakes by 9 3/4 lengths with a 107 Beyer Speed Figure. On May 16, he won the 1 1/2-mile Louisville at Churchill by 4 3/4 lengths with a 100 Beyer. If jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. asked very little of his mount in the Elkhorn, he asked even less in the Louisville.
“He’s giving you confidence in what he’s doing,” said Wilkes, who trains the homebred Burnham Square for Whitham Thoroughbreds. “You always want to see him come back and run the way he did last time after what he did at Keeneland. He delivered, and now I know where I’m at with this horse.”
Burnham Square figures to face no more than seven rivals, with Parchment Party’s connections hoping for an unlikely rain-off onto dirt. Trainer Bill Mott said in late April that he’d keep Parchment Party to long-distance dirt racing despite the paucity of suitable opportunities. Mott also entered Timeout, a sneaky potential exacta partner for the odds-on favorite.
Timeout has started only twice on turf, winning a second-level Tampa Bay Downs allowance over 1 1/16 miles in his grass debut. His very poor second grass race doesn’t seem representative, and in his lone start at a distance comparable to Saturday’s, Timeout lost by a neck in a 1 1/2-mile dirt stakes.
Several horses Burnham Square thrashed his last two races fled to the Cape Henlopen Stakes on Saturday at Delaware Park, though the distant second- and third-place Louisville finishers, Dancin in Da’nile and Echo Lane, show up for more. Chapman’s Peak probably goes off second choice. He finished a half-length behind Burnham Square in a Feb. 28 Gulfstream Park turf allowance over 1 1/16 miles, a race Wilkes used strictly as a prep for Keeneland and Churchill.
Burnham Square’s high baseline long predates his 2026 grass form. He won the Grade 1 Blue Grass over nine furlongs on dirt some 14 months ago and was a troubled sixth of 19 in the Kentucky Derby.
But even before Burnham Square made a grass start, Wilkes had a strong sense that he would excel in turf marathons. With that in mind, this start, the Louisville, and the Elkhorn, in Wilkes’s plan, set the foundation for the heart of Burnham Square’s campaign – the Arlington Million in August, the $2 million Kentucky Turf Cup in September, and the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Turf on Oct. 31.
Burnham Square hasn’t put a wrong foot forward all year. A later-maturing gelding, he continues to improve upon what Wilkes terms “the little things,” handling himself better when shipping the 28 miles from his training-center base, Skylight, to Churchill. Burnham Square, despite racing at night, was more composed than he had ever been in the paddock before the Louisville. His everyday gallops, his timed workouts – excellent.
“I can’t fault him. Just touch wood and marvel at him,” Wilkes said.
Burnham Square settles beautifully for Hernandez. The phrase “push-button horse” perfectly describes what we’ve seen from Burnham Square his last two races. Burnham Square simply looks too good for the Chorleywood – and he probably is.
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