Churchill Downs: Bird County's maiden win bittersweet for Wilkes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ian Wilkes knows all too well that the minute you think you can enjoy the fruits of your labor in racing is when you can’t.

Wilkes swept the late double Wednesday at Churchill Downs with a pair of homebreds for Marylou Whitney: Prescott Brown ($7.40) won the ninth race and Bird County ($12.40) led all the way in the 10th, a maiden special weight race at 1 1/16 miles – but that just couldn’t suffice as the end of a nice story, could it?

Sadly, Bird County sustained a fractured knee past the wire and was vanned off the track. Despite being rushed immediately to the Rood & Riddle equine hospital in Lexington, the injury was so severe that the 3-year-old filly had to be euthanized.

“That just shows you the highs and lows,” Wilkes said.

Bird County, by Birdstone, was the second foal out of the Whitney mare Quick Town.

Keen interest in $5,000 mare

An 18-way shake took place following an otherwise forgettable $5,000 race here Wednesday when Brian Knippenberg became the new owner-trainer of a 5-year-old mare named Tripledogdareya.

Although 18 is an impressive number, it is not a Churchill record. Owner Bill Steiden recalls winning a shake of “either 22 or 23” in claiming an Overbrook Farm filly named Carson Creek for $25,000 here May 23, 1996. The filly was widely believed to have residual value as a broodmare, and thus the fervent interest.

Conversely, Tripledogdareya, by Devil His Due, does not seem to have the pedigree of a top broodmare prospect, but by finishing second Wednesday, she remains eligible for the “nonwinners in 2013” condition that governed the race and obviously was seen as a prized commodity for the lower-level conditioned-claiming races that abound at most tracks.

Moreover, the proverbial crowd at the Churchill claim box very much illustrates how horsemen have been claiming horses in sizable numbers throughout this fall meet as they seek to stock their stables before heading south for the winter. Through Thursday (13 of 25 days), a whopping 68 horses had been claimed for a total of $1,162,000.

Borel will be off until January

Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel made it official when announcing this week that he will not ride again until Oaklawn Park opens Jan. 10. The three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey suffered a fractured fibula in an Oct. 24 spill at Keeneland and had wanted to make it back for the final week or two of this meet, but he also incurred soft-tissue damage in his right shoulder and needs more time for that to heal properly.

Borel typically takes vacation time every year in his native Louisiana from the end of the Churchill fall meet to the start of Oaklawn.

Back-to-back bombs

Brian Hernandez Jr. won with just 4 of his first 42 mounts at this meet, but the last two were doozies, giving him a $4.57 return on investment for every $2 win wager.

Hernandez, best known as the regular rider of the recently retired Fort Larned for Wilkes, won the allowance feature here Thursday aboard Zadina at a $105 win mutuel, his second straight winning longshot after Sound Effect ($66.20) last Saturday.

One in, one out for Byrne

Trainer Pat Byrne has confirmed Almost Famous as definite for the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 30 but said he will not enter a second 2-year-old, Chas’s Legacy, in that closing-day co-feature for the suburban Chicago couple that has become his top client, Chuck and Maribeth Sandford.

Almost Famous, a six-length winner of a 1 1/16-mile allowance here last Saturday, figures as one of the favorites for the KJC. Meanwhile, Chas’s Legacy, a Nov. 7 maiden winner, will not race again until early next year in Florida, Byrne said.

Sum of the Parts headed to New Orleans

Sum of the Parts has resumed training at Churchill and is scheduled to have his first breeze since the Breeders’ Cup “maybe in the next week or so” before heading to Fair Grounds in New Orleans for a winter campaign, according to trainer Tom Amoss.

Sum of the Parts set the early pace before finishing last of 12 at 20-1 in the BC Sprint when coming off a second straight victory in the Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland. Amoss said he has no specific races in mind yet for the 4-year-old Sum of the Parts.

Sprint feature iffy for turf

The only allowance on a 10-race Sunday card at Churchill serves as the nominal feature, although with the forecast of potentially severe weather looming over this region Sunday, there is a distinct possibility the oversubscribed race may have to be transferred from the turf to the main track. Either way, the $45,000, second-level allowance (race 9) will be run at five furlongs.

After Sunday, another five-day race week resumes here Wednesday following two dark days. The lone stakes next week is the Grade 3, $100,000 River City Handicap on Saturday, Nov. 23.