Chilukki's mile distance ideal for Nostalgic

Bill Mott has ample familiarity with a Godolphin homebred who seems like they should excel at nine furlongs around two turns but doesn’t. Cody’s Wish, recently retired, is a superstar between seven furlongs and one mile, but run him farther and Cody’s Wish, despite looking the part of a route horse, loses his edge.

Nostalgic presents a similar case. The 4-year-old filly’s lone stakes win came in the 1 1/8-mile Gazelle, but she might have found her real calling as a miler, a proposition that will be put to the test Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 3, $300,000 Chilukki Stakes.

The Chilukki, a one-turn mile, drew nine older fillies and mares, though not all are assured of starting, with Hidden Connection and Falconet cross-entered in the 1 1/8-mile Falls City on Thursday.

The Chilukki field includes nothing approaching a standout, and Nostalgic could offer a touch of value coming off a distant third-place finish in the Beldame Stakes.

“It was dull,” Mott flatly said of Nostalgic’s Beldame. “I don’t know if it was the two-turn mile and an eighth or what.”

Nostalgic didn’t race between late November 2022 and this past July. Mott was just looking to get the filly going again when he entered her in a one-mile allowance contest at Saratoga, the shortest race of Nostalgic’s career. A solid second in the comeback start, Nostalgic tried one mile again a month later, closing stoutly into a slow pace to win by daylight over the good filly Gerrymander, earning a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.

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“It probably happened by accident,” Mott said of the cutback, “but she did run pretty well going a mile.”

Nostalgic drew the rail, and if all goes well jockey Florent Geroux should snug her into a stalking position behind likely pacesetters Oeuvre and Hot and Sultry. Both those fillies have questions to answer.

Lightly raced 4-year-old Hot and Sultry got very good last winter at Oaklawn Park, winning the American Beauty, a six-furlong sprint, and racing competitively against top-class competition in the Grade 2 Azeri and the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, both routes. Hot and Sultry makes her first start since an even fourth in the seven-furlong Derby City Distaff on May 6 and might not be set for her best.

“She had some things we needed to clean up after that last race, so we sent her to the farm for a little while,” said Norm Casse, who trains Hot and Sultry for JoAnn and Alex Lieblong. “This isn’t exactly where we wanted to come back, but an allowance race didn’t fill for her.”

Hot and Sultry has been working with aplomb, going easily through a 58.60-second five furlongs on Nov. 3 and traveling strongly, a bundle of barely contained energy, in a half-mile work in 47 seconds on Nov. 11.

“She’s a tremendous work horse, and since she’s come back, she’s been much more kind, which is going to be beneficial going forward,” Casse said.

Oeuvre, a 14-time winner from 22 starts, has sprint stakes victories on turf and dirt, and while she successfully stretched to a two-turn turf mile winning a Keeneland allowance race in October, this one-turn dirt mile offers a new challenge.

“I don’t think the mile’s a problem,” trainer Chris Block said. “She seems to relax more as she’s gotten older. I hope she’ll settle into stride and have some punch at the quarter pole.”

Block also runs She Can’t Sing, who won a lesser renewal of this race a year ago and is making her final start. She is switching back to dirt after a series of grass races.

“I hope she hasn’t lost a step or two, but on grass it seems like she has,” Block said.

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Trainer Bret Calhoun prefers a 1 1/16-mile race for Hidden Connection, who hasn’t won around one turn since her career debut 27 months ago. Neither the Chilukki nor the 1 1/8-mile Falls City is ideal.

“I don’t know what direction we’re going yet,” Calhoun said Thursday.

Nostalgic, cut back in distance, might be going the right direction.

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