Comebackers Saudi Crown, Tarifa top stakes-filled card

Sunday is comeback day for a couple highly regarded horses trained by Brad Cox.

Saudi Crown makes his first start following a break of more than three months in the $150,000 Cowboy Jones Stakes, while the 3-year-old filly Tarifa returns from a freshening in the $175,000 Audubon Oaks.

Those two races are among six stakes carded Sunday at Ellis Park.

The Cowboy Jones, race 5, begins the stakes action, and – for the class level – drew an especially strong field of 12. Still, 11 entrants in this one-mile event are running for second if Saudi Crown shows up.

Four-year-old Saudi Crown has won four of nine starts and ran too well to lose in three of his defeats. In May 2023, after a pair of wins to start his career, Saudi Crown had his stakes debut in the Dwyer at Aqueduct, where Fort Bragg beat him by a nose despite Saudi Crown posting a flashy 106 Beyer Speed Figure.

Saudi Crown validated that number with a 105 in the Jim Dandy at Saratoga, beaten a nose there by Forte. The colt ended his 3-year-old season with a pace-and-fade 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which, at 1 1/4 miles, is simply too far for Saudi Crown.

Aimed at the Saudi Cup in February, Saudi Crown ran his heart out finishing third, beaten less than one length in a 1 1/8-mile contest, also slightly beyond his scope.

Saudi Crown can race competitively at longer trips but at heart is a miler.

“We’re just getting him going again, hoping we can march toward the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile,” said Cox.

Cox said plans call for Saudi Crown, who came back after the Jim Dandy to win the Grade 1 Pennsylvania Derby, are to race in the Ack Ack at Churchill Downs in advance of a trip to Del Mar for the BC Dirt mile.

“We have these three races in mind, and we thought this would be a great spot to get him started. I really do like how he’s trained since coming back from Dubai,” Cox said.

Five weeks after his game Saudi Cup run, Saudi Crown beat one horse while finishing 12th in the March 30 Godolphin Mile on the Dubai World Cup undercard while facing competition he should have bossed.

“He didn’t handle the holding barn or paddock,” Cox said. “He wasn’t his normal self. He’s a good-feeling horse, but he’s always composed. He was not at Meydan.”

Florent Geroux rides Saudi Crown, who likes to flaunt his early speed and should be solidly favored despite the depth of his opposition, which is headed by Injunction and Mr. Wireless, the top two finishers last month in the Schaefer Stakes in Indiana.

Audubon Oaks

Tarifa matched Saudi Crown’s poor effort in Godolphin Mile in her last race, checking in ninth, beaten 18 lengths at odds of 5-1 in the Kentucky Oaks. A winner in the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra and Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks in New Orleans, Tarifa came into the Kentucky Oaks struggling to hold her weight after a racing pattern extending back to October.

“She trained okay out of the Oaks, but we decided to give her a little break and put some weight on her. Physically, she looks as good as she’s ever looked, but this is about getting a race into her,” Cox said.

Eight fillies are entered in the seven-furlong Audubon Oaks, a distance shorter than Tarifa prefers. Tarifa, a Godolphin homebred, drew poorly on the rail, though the filly did win her career debut at Keeneland last fall racing on the Beard Course, which is seven furlongs and 184 feet.

Fibber and Mink’s Palace look like the chief opposition, and someone other than Tarifa, a likely underlay, could be worth a bet.

Ellis Park Derby

Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. gave a minimal flick of the wrist coming off the clubhouse turn and onto the backstretch in the Matt Winn Stakes. His mount, Who Dey, was tracking the pacesetter, but with a horse ranging up three wide, Who Dey was about to get shuffled back. Instead, taking that subtle cue, Who Dey set off for the lead, scorching his second quarter mile 22.98 seconds, a taxing fraction that proved his undoing in the end.

Who Dey, sans the blinkers he’s worn his last four starts, returns to racing Sunday in the $275,000 Ellis Park Derby, and if Hernandez can get his mount to settle behind rivals after breaking from post 1, Who Dey might be the one for this one-mile contest.

Who Dey faces six in the Ellis Derby, a solid group for the class level. A massive colt trained by Tommy Drury, Who Dey knocked around Ohio-bred rivals as a 2-year-old, completing a 4-for-4 campaign with a first-level Churchill allowance win in November. He has lost his three races this year – the Lafayette at Keeneland and the Pat Day Mile at Churchill preceding the Matt Winn – but might be poised for a breakthrough after being freshened and put through a series of five breezes since his last start.

Most Wanted makes his stakes debut after beginning his career with a pair of wins, his first-level allowance score July 21 over a mile at Ellis a stronger performance than the narrow margin of victory and the moderate 83 Beyer.

Most Wanted, a Gary and Mary West homebred trained by Cox, led on a strong pace, shrugged off several challengers from the top of the homestretch to the sixteenth pole, and won going away. He proceeded to widen his lead on the gallop-out, clipping along into the clubhouse turn with his ears pricked, like he’d not done much hard work.

“It’s back in three weeks, a little quick, but he’s a smart horse, not hard on himself,” Cox said. “They kind of hustled me into the race, but if he’s as good as I hope he is, he can beat these horses.”

Not This Boy earned a field-best 95 Beyer Speed Figure romping through the slop to land an Ellis first-level allowance by seven lengths on July 4. Stretch Ride, last seen finishing third, beaten three lengths by Honor Marie in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, makes his first start since November for trainer Dale Romans, a winner with four of his last seven Ellis Park starters. Catalytic, after finishing 19th in the Kentucky Derby, was cut back to seven furlongs while beaten a head in the Carry Back at Gulfstream Park.

◗ If she runs to form, Musical Mischief can notch her first stakes win in the $175,000 Groupie Doll, a one-mile race for older fillies and mares that drew a field of 10.

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