Catching Freedom returns, takes on Not This Boy

Catching Freedom – you remember him. Or do you?

It has been, after all, 18 months since Catching Freedom notched his signature win, in the 2024 Louisiana Derby. A good fourth in the Kentucky Derby, a good third in the Preakness, a tame fourth as the odds-on Ohio Derby favorite, and Catching Freedom was done for his 3-year-old season. His comeback run, on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds, passed with barely a whisper. Catching Freedom chunked home seventh in the Mineshaft Stakes and in the featured eighth race Sunday at Churchill makes the second start of his 4-year-old year.

Even should he reprise his glory days, Catching Freedom probably won’t win. That’s because among his five foes in a 1 1/16-mile, third-level allowance race with a $100,000 claiming option is Not This Boy. Listed as the 6-5 favorite, Not This Boy surely goes off as an odds-on favorite in this dirt route. He was 7-10, after all, facing Dubai World Cup winner Hit Show last out in the West Virginia Governor’s. Hit Show, who was to run Saturday in the $500,000 Lukas Classic, nipped Not This Boy by a head, but only after Not This Boy, collared in midstretch, fought tooth and nail to the wire. More than seven lengths separated the second- and third-place finishers.

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Funny thing is, Not This Boy meets two horses – neither of them Catching Freedom – who have beaten him. Moonlight ran him down May 2 when Not This Boy went a Churchill one-turn mile making his first start since August, while This Is Uscar, in a May 2024 first-level dirt-sprint allowance race, beat Not This Boy by almost four.

This Is Uscar figures to show speed from his outside draw, and Not This Boy (who needs a new jockey to replace injured Brian Hernandez Jr.), has enough tractability to let him go, come around, and work out a pressing trip. Maybe the two pace players hook up on a duel. Catching Freedom once looked like the kind of horse who could gather them in with his sustained, grinding run. That was a long time ago.

Tappan Street has timed work

Tappan Street, the last horse to defeat 3-year-old superstar Sovereignty, posted a timed workout Sept. 18 at WinStar Farm and will soon join trainer Brad Cox’s string at Keeneland, Cox said Wednesday.

Tappan Street scored a solid debut win Dec. 24 at Gulfstream Park, ran well in defeat finishing second behind Burnham Square in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, and beat Sovereignty by 1 1/4 lengths in the Florida Derby. While Sovereignty went on to win the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont, the Jim Dandy, and the Travers, Tappan Street suffered a condylar fracture in an April 26 workout, underwent surgery, and spent the next several months recovering. The colt, by Into Mischief, remains eligible to a second-level allowance.

Just a Touch is set to exit a much shorter stint on the farm and begin training with the Cox horses at Keeneland. Third in the Met Mile in June, Just a Touch took a shocking loss at odds of 1-10 in the Monmouth Cup on July 19 and subsequently was given a break.

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