Classy comebackers loom large, but price is a factor
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Two comeback horses hold the key to a pair of rich allowance contests Thursday evening at Churchill Downs.
Race 6 has a basic fourth-level allowance condition, a $175,000 claiming option, offers a $148,000 purse, and is carded for older horses at 1 1/16 miles on turf. Among its 10 entrants is Ole Crazy Bone, who makes his first start since Sept. 5, a layoff horse at the wrong price and the wrong distance,
The seventh is the same race but carded for seven furlongs on dirt. Among its eight entrants is 6-year-old Extra Anejo, a layoff horse at the right price and the right distance.
Extra Anejo last raced Aug. 23 at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Forego, finishing an uncompetitive eighth. His previous start, a third in the Hanshin at Churchill, was considerably better, but Extra Anejo’s prior start, the Grade 1 Churchill Downs, yielded even worse returns than the Forego.
Forget all that. The race that counts vis a vis Thursday’s contest came April 8 at Keeneland in the Commonwealth Stakes, a Grade 3 over seven furlongs that Extra Anejo won while racing for the first time in seven months. And let us also go back to May 30, 2024, which saw Extra Anejo start for the first time since the previous July. He showed up at Churchill racing seven furlongs in a third-level allowance and won by 3 1/2 lengths.
“I’ve been very pleased with the way the horse has been training, and I expect him to run to his training,” trainer Steve Asmussen said.
Extra Anejo hit the work tab this year March 26 at Fair Grounds and has logged 10 breezes without interruption. There’s workout video for several of the Churchill drills, in which Extra Anejo often goes very aggressively, fighting for his head. That held especially true in a slow 1:02.80 five furlongs April 28, but his May 11 work went much smoother.
“He can get very strong. We just let him do more last time,” Asmussen said.
Extra Anejo worked a bullet 1:00.40 on May 11. He’s 6-1 on the morning line, a reasonable number if Built’s morning-line odds of 7-5 hold.
Built earned a 106 Beyer setting a Fair Grounds track record for six furlongs on March 13. Racing without Lasix on April 30 in the restricted St. Matthews Stakes, Built got a lovely setup tracking a slow early pace but faded to finish a distant third. Trainer Wayne Catalano puts that performance down to racing surface.
“He hated that drying-out racetrack. He was swimming out there and distressed – it was really hard on him,” Catalano said.
Built has come back to train well and, Catalano said, won’t mind sitting behind the speed if need be.
As for Ole Crazy Bone, his last race brought connections that had claimed him for $100,000 two starts earlier a $1.44 million paycheck – not a misprint. Ole Crazy Bone sat a sweet trip under Flavien Prat and won the $2.5 million Kentucky Turf Cup by almost four lengths.
But the in-form horse last seen racing 1 1/2 miles at European-style Kentucky Downs now comes in cold going 1 1/16 miles on a conventional course. He’s 7-2 on the morning line and, given the circumstances, skepticism seems merited.
Dresden Row’s connections scratched him from the Dinner Party Stakes on Saturday at Laurel in favor of this spot. Twin Oaks Bloodstock bought Dresden Row for $575,000 from a digital auction in January, turned the 5-year-old over to trainer Todd Pletcher, and in April got a convincing high-end Keeneland turf allowance win out of their new horse.
There, Dresden Row sat a perfect trip pressing Theismann’s pace. Here, Theismann figures to press rail-drawn pace player Encino, with Dresden Row settling into another sweet trip a couple lengths behind under Irad Ortiz. Ortiz won five straight races Sunday at Churchill and can win the Thursday co-feature on Dresden Row, a fair-priced 4-1 on the morning line.
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