Burnham Square turns back in Arlington Million after marathon success
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With such an intense focus on the Triple Crown early in many talented horses’s careers, it is not uncommon for potential turf stars to be delayed in finding their true calling. It took Burnham Square nearly a year, but there’s no turning back now.
Burnham Square first tried grass a year ago. Coming into the Grade 1 Arlington Million on Saturday at Colonial Downs, the 4-year-old gelding has won three straight marathon turf stakes with triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures, and will have the chance to become a rare dual surface Grade 1 winner. Trainer Ian Wilkes said it’s time to give him a true test.
“He just doesn’t get tired,” Wilkes said. “He keeps on going. That’s one of the biggest things with him. To be able to have that turn of foot at the end of marathon races, it takes him from a nice horse to a good horse.”
The Arlington Million is the featured race on the biggest day of the Colonial meet. The 12-race card features eight stakes that offer a combined $2.6 million in purse money.
The field of eight older males assembled for the $1 million, 1 1/4-mile turf race includes seven graded stakes winners. Burnham Square, turning back in distancce, will be joined by the 2025 Arlington Million winner Fort Washington, his Grade 1-placed stablemate Integration, and the Grade 1 winner Test Score, along with a competitive group of outsiders.
By the time Burnham Square won the Grade 1 Blue Grass last year, he and his connections were firmly caught up in the trappings of the Kentucky Derby, where he went on to finish sixth.
“He’s bred for grass,” Wilkes said. “He just got to running good on the dirt, so it was hard to take him off of it.”
Wilkes kept making the usual stops with Burnham Square until he ran a disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 Haskell. The trainer then decided to ship the gelding to Kentucky Downs for the Grade 3, $3.5 million Nashville Derby Invitational. He surprised that day to finish second.
Among his four stellar races this year, Burnham Square’s 9 3/4-length romp in the Grade 2 Elkhorn at Keeneland stands out. The 107 Beyer he earned that day remains tied for the highest figure on turf this year.
Since that explosive effort, he has gone on to win the Grade 3 Louisville by 4 3/4 lengths in May and outdueled the game underdog Chapman’s Peak in the $225,000 Chorleywood. The Arlington Million will be his first race outside Kentucky since February, when he suffered his last defeat in a Gulfstream Park allowance.
“I just really concentrated on getting him in a nice routine this year, keeping him near home, just shipping to Keeneland and Churchill,” Wilkes said. “He’s been very good this year, maybe the maturity.”
Last year, Shug McGaughey entered Integration in the Arlington Million in search of his long-awaited Grade 1 score, only for the 3-5 favorite to get outkicked by stablemate Fort Washington.
“I was anxious with him to go a little bit farther, but the opportunities hadn’t come up until the Million,” McGaughey said of Fort Washington. “I think getting stretched out does help him.”
Like last year, Integration will run at Colonial off a short defeat in the Grade 1 Manhattan at Saratoga, while Fort Washington will again ship after winning the Grade 3 Dinner Party at Laurel Park and earning a 90 Beyer in the Grade 2 Wise Dan at Churchill Downs.
Test Score, a two-time Grade 1 winner trained by Graham Motion, kicked off his year in style when he won the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational in January. He bounced back from a dull effort in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs to finish second in the Manhattan last month.
“I have no idea what happened to him at Churchill,” Motion said. “That was very unusual for him. But obviously, he ran super last time. He’s been a remarkably consistent horse, this guy, so I think it was more that the race at Churchill was unusual and he was back to himself in the Manhattan.”
Dresden Row, a three-time Grade 3 stakes winner on synthetic, has run at 1 1/16 miles on turf in each of his last three starts and most recently finished third in the Wise Dan. Todd Pletcher said a “million-dollar Grade 1” was the perfect opportunity to try him at a longer distance.
Gran Oriente, a 5-year-old trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., is coming off back-to-back listed stakes victories at Gulfstream and will step up to Grade 1 company. He will be joined by the Grade 3 winner Layabout, who finished well behind him in the $75,000 Soldier’s Dancer last time out. Trainer Patrick Biancone said he expects improvement with a better trip.
Mercante is cross-entered in the $300,000 Green River Island at Ellis Park on Sunday, and trainer Brian Knippenberg said he planned to stay in Kentucky, which would shorten the field to seven.
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