Colebrook playing the long game with Phoenix favorite Limousine Liberal

Like other trainers with starters in Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland, Ben Colebrook has Breeders’ Cup Sprint aspirations for his horse, Limousine Liberal – just not the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar next month.

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Instead, he is thinking about the race in 2018, when it will be run at Churchill Downs, where Limousine Liberal rattled off three stakes victories this spring.

Colebrook, pointing to the quality of the West Coast sprinters and the cross-country ship to Del Mar, said Tuesday he and owner Katherine Ball are “not contemplating” the 2017 Breeders’ Cup, although the Phoenix is a Win and You’re In prep for the Sprint on Nov. 4.

The six-furlong Phoenix is at Limousine Liberal’s home base of Keeneland, and of the 10 rivals he faces, only Whitmore might be considered to be among the leaders in the sprint division.

With Whitmore coming off two consecutive lackluster third-place finishes, Limousine Liberal, a 5-year-old gelded son of Successful Appeal, appears to be a deserving favorite. He established Keeneland’s 6 1/2-furlong track record of 1:15.05 in winning an allowance in the spring of 2016, and was beaten a nose in this race last year when A. P. Indian set the six-furlong track record of 1:08.43.

On Friday, Limousine Liberal will seek to rebound from a distant third in the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt at Saratoga on July 29. He finished eight lengths behind winner El Deal and was edged by a head for the place by Awesome Banner, who is back in the Phoenix.

Colebrook felt Limousine Liberal’s effort in the Vanderbilt wasn’t the horse’s best.

“It was a deep track, and that wasn’t the way he wants to run,” he said.

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He believes Limousine Liberal is most effective when his rider sits patiently aboard him, rather than urging him early. Jose Ortiz will be tasked with these instructions when Limousine Liberal breaks from post 5 in the Phoenix, the eighth race, which goes at 4:57 Eastern.

Whitmore follows Limousine Liberal on the morning line as the 3-1 second choice. A winner of five consecutive races before losing the Grade 2 True North and Grade 3 De Francis Dash, he is the lone millionaire in the Phoenix lineup.

Whitmore beat one rival in the four-horse De Francis, and trainer Ron Moquett attributes that defeat to an inside trip and a dislike for the surface at Laurel Park.

A threat to the favorites is 6-1 shot Threefiveindia, a Chad Brown-trained invader from New York who won a third-level allowance at Saratoga last out on Aug. 26. He has not raced in a stakes this year, but was twice graded placed in 2016.