Churchill Downs: Bourbon Courage waiting in weeds for Clark favorites

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Owing to his name, if nothing else, Bourbon Courage will be a fan favorite when friends and families reconvene at Churchill Downs amid the usual reverie that has made the Friday after Thanksgiving the fall-meet version of Louisville’s Day at the Races.

Fun and frivolity aside, Bourbon Courage merits a legitimate spoiler’s chance as one of the more accomplished challengers to Game On Dude and Will Take Charge in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, which will be held Friday for the 139th time.

“I know we’ll play the role of underdog, but that’s okay,” said Kellyn Gorder, the trainer of 4-year-old Bourbon Courage. “We’re happy with where our horse is and I’m anxious to see him run again.”

Bourbon Courage, an earner of $841,844 from 13 career starts, has raced just once since finishing third in the Alysheba on the May 3 Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill. The colt earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure in finishing second in a 7 1/2-furlong allowance prep here Oct. 31 and figures as a key pace factor when stretching out to 1 1/8 miles in the Clark.

“He definitely needed that race last time and came out of it well,” Gorder said.

At least seven 3-year-olds and upward were expected when entries for the $500,000 Clark were to be drawn Tuesday. Game On Dude, scheduled to arrive here Wednesday from California, will be the 126-pound highweight, followed by Will Take Charge (123), Bourbon Courage (120), and Golden Ticket (120).

Don’t Tell Sophia gets outside

Don’t Tell Sophia has drawn the outside post in a field of nine fillies and mares for the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature, the Grade 2, $150,000 Falls City Handicap.

Don’t Tell Sophia matched a career high when she earned a 100 Beyer for winning the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes here Nov. 2. The 5-year-old mare will have Joe Rocco Jr. aboard again Thursday in the 1 1/8-mile race.

From the rail, the field is Flashy American, Ice Cream Silence, Fiftyshadesofhay, Owl Moon, Magic Hour, My Option, Wine Princess, Molly Morgan, and Don’t Tell Sophia.

Twelve races are carded for Thursday, when first post will be 11:30 a.m. Eastern. The Falls City goes at 4:21 and the last race at 4:50. First post the last two days of the meet (Friday and Saturday) is the usual 12:40.

Calhoun leads by one

With just four days left in the 25-day fall meet, trainer Bret Calhoun held a 13-12 edge over Mike Maker atop the Churchill trainer standings, but it’s a lead that’s tenuous at best. Whereas Calhoun has a total of just one scheduled starter for Wednesday and Thursday, Maker has entries in 12 races on those two days.

In the other categories, Corey Lanerie leads all jockeys with 30 winners and is well on his way to a fourth riding title from the last five Churchill meets, while Ken and Sarah Ramsey, with 14 winners, have a virtual lock on earning their eighth meet owners’ title at an American track this year.

$80 winner for 80th birthday

Tom McCarthy got an 80th birthday gift a few days early when Brink of War lit up the Churchill toteboard with an $80.80 win mutuel following the seventh race Saturday.

McCarthy, who turns 80 on Thursday, continues to revel in his second career after retiring years ago as a high-school teacher and principal. He has two other horses in his stable and is headed to Fair Grounds in New Orleans for the winter.

McCarthy is best known as the owner-trainer of General Quarters, winner of the 2009 Blue Grass Stakes and 2010 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic.

Balancing act

Brink of War was one of seven winners ridden here last week (Wednesday through Sunday) by Francisco Torres, whose other longshot winners during that span included Ready’s Legend ($40.20) on Wednesday and Hero Wisdom ($25) on Sunday.

Perhaps even more impressive than all those wins might have been how Torres somehow stayed aboard Unbridledcharacter when the gray 2-year-old colt tried to jump the inner rail shortly after the start of the eighth race Saturday at six furlongs.

Unbridledcharacter trailed throughout at 13-1, but Torres averted disaster with remarkable agility and skill “and an angel,” he said with a laugh. “You’re never really prepared for something like that.”

Leparoux kicked in paddock

Jockey Julien Leparoux took off his mounts prior to the sixth race Sunday after being kicked in the buttocks by a horse in the paddock. Leparoux said Monday morning he suffered a deep bruise and was very sore but that he expected to be back for the final four days.

◗ An unseasonable cold spell led to training being canceled here Sunday, although it resumed Monday when temperatures rose slightly above freezing. High temperatures Tuesday through Thursday were not expected to exceed 38, with a slight warm-up to 46 for the Clark on Friday.

◗ With stakes races the rest of the weekend, the nine-race Wednesday is the last program of the meet without one. The nominal feature is the eighth, a $45,000 second-level allowance carded as a one-turn mile. Calhoun has the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Tapit’s World among an oversubscribed lineup of fillies and mares.