Class should tell tale in Prevue

Racing in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 25, Joe Got Even found himself chasing some of the top juveniles in the country, eventually finishing fifth behind Tiz Wonderful and Any Given Saturday.

In Saturday's $50,000 Turfway Prevue, he is among significantly easier company, and it looks as if his opponents will be chasing him, instead of the other way around. Having been tested in a graded stakes race, Joe Got Even holds a class edge over 10 rivals in the 6 1/2-furlong Turfway Prevue, the first of three stakes preps for 3-year-old colts at Turfway leading up to its signature race, the Grade 2 Lane's End on March 24.

Further working in Joe Got Even's favor is a fondness for racing over Polytrack. A 3-year-old son of Stephen Got Even, he has two wins in as many starts on the synthetic surface, having won a maiden race at Turfway by 4 1/4 lengths Sept. 9 and a first-level allowance at Keeneland by 2 1/4 lengths Oct. 13.

Those victories followed a ninth-place finish in his debut, which came in the slop at Churchill Downs on July 4, and preceded his Kentucky Jockey Club effort, a race in which he finished 10 1/4 lengths behind victorious Tiz Wonderful.

Based at Keeneland, Joe Got Even gets the opportunity to train over Polytrack every day. He worked a bullet five furlongs there in 1:00.40 on Dec. 23 and a half-mile in 47.60 seconds on Dec. 30.

Trainer Phil Sims believes Joe Got Even's distance pedigree makes him well-suited to racing on Polytrack, pointing to the achievements of the colt's dam, Expedicionaria, who won 9 of 18 starts in Venezuela and was a stakes winner there.

"I think horses bred for endurance do well on the Polytrack," said Sims. "Speed on speed doesn't work so well."

Although Joe Got Even's two victories have come sprinting, Sims believes the colt wants to route. But the opportunity to run Joe Got Even close to his Keeneland base and over a Polytrack surface led Sims to cut back the colt in distance from the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Jockey Club.

Miguel Mena, who topped the standings at the recently concluded holiday meet at Turfway, rides for owners Elizabeth Tobin and Joe Vaudo.

The opposition is composed mostly of horses with maiden and first-level allowance experience, plus one first-time starter, Grand Scale. Carnacks Choice, second recently behind eventual Sugar Bowl stakes winner Teuflesberg, and Danny Sez, a decisive winner in each of his last two races, are contenders.