Cashel Rock liking surface switch

In mid-January, and somewhat by accident, Cashel Rock found the kind of race in which, from all the evidence, he wants to run. The question handicappers approaching the $65,000 Golden Circle Stakes on Friday evening at Prairie Meadows must ask is if Cashel Rock has been running in too many such races.

A debut winner last summer on turf at Arlington, Cashel Rock looked like a turf-and-synthetics type of racehorse when trainer Doug Matthews decided to leave him in a sprint allowance race rained off turf at Fair Grounds on Jan. 15. Cashel Rock finished second by half a length to the good 3-year-old sprinter Quijote, and he has since validated that dirt-sprint form with back-to-back allowance wins, first at Fair Grounds and then at Hawthorne.

The Hawthorne race came April 15, giving Cashel Rock barely more than two weeks’ rest going into the Golden Circle, but Matthews isn’t concerned.

“It is kind of quick, but he ran real good when I ran him back quick in New Orleans,” Matthews said.

Indeed, Cashel Rock came back 16 days after the second to Quijote and finished third, beaten less than a length, in the Keith Gee Memorial. That race was won by the solid One Mean Man, and Oscar Nominated, the Spiral Stakes winner and Kentucky Derby contender, finished second.

“His three dirt races, you can’t knock them, really,” said Matthews. “He’s been kind of a surprise. He worked all right before he ever ran but never worked like he was going to be a real good horse.”

Cashel Rock is well drawn on the rail under Santo Sanjur to save ground and get the kind of stalking trip that’s propelled him to his consecutive victories. He’s 8-5 on the morning line, a reasonable number, and isn’t likely to offer value even as the most likely winner.

There are, however, just five others in the Golden Circle, carded for six furlongs and restricted to 3-year-olds. Notta and Victory Arch are the logical second and third choices, but both lack the tactical versatility that Cashel Rock has displayed. Cashel Rock powered past Victory Arch when they met March 12 at Fair Grounds, and Victory Arch might be a better horse on turf. Notta, like Cashel Rock an Illinois-bred, dueled on a hot pace last out in an Oaklawn allowance race won by Patton Proud, a decent-seeming colt who tries the $100,000 William Walker on Saturday at Churchill.