Conceit edges Explora in Dogwood; Consequent dominates Seneca
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Juddmonte Farms had two homebred stakes winners Saturday night at Churchill Downs, where Conceit nipped odds-on favorite Explora in the Grade 3 Dogwood Stakes before odds-on favorite Consequent dominated the Seneca Overnight Stakes.
In the first stakes race on the card, Doublecents shipped in from Louisiana Downs and powered home a 1 1/2-length winner of the Harrods Creek, a first Churchill winner for trainer Brett Creighton.
The featured $300,000 Dogwood, carded for seven furlongs on dirt and restricted to 3-year-old fillies, was the race of the night. Explora, easy winner of the Grade 1 Test in her most recent outing, went off a tick lower than 2-5, was hustled to the lead from her rail draw by jockey Flavien Prat, but could not shake free from pacepressing Movie Night, who ratcheted up the pressure into and around the far turn.
As Movie Night and Explora dueled to the quarter pole and into the homestretch, Conceit launched a bid from fourth after racing about six lengths off the leaders at the three-furlong marker. Rallying wide under Mario Gutierrez, Conceit steadily reeled in the two fillies in front of her, and just as Explora narrowly took the measure of Movie Night, Conceit nailed her on the wire.
Just a head separated the winner from the runner-up, as well as the runner-up from the third-place finisher, as Conceit notched a first graded-stakes win for Juddmonte and trainer Brad Cox. Conceit ($13.46) clocked 1:22.60 over a fast track and earned a career-best 96 Beyer Speed Figure.
By Not This Time out of Pachinko, by Tapit, Conceit debuted as a 2-year-old in a turf route and made all four of her starts last year in route races, running twice on turf and once on synthetic, and romping in a Horseshoe Indianapolis maiden race scheduled for grass but rained onto a sloppy main track.
Conceit returned June 26 from a long layoff entered in another turf race that also was switched to dirt and, after the filly tallied by more than nine lengths, Cox ran her back in the Audubon Oaks over seven furlongs on Ellis Park dirt. Conceit won that race by three-quarters of a length and now is 4 for 4 on dirt after defeating two of the fastest horses in the division Saturday night.
After taking a tough loss with Explora, trainer Bob Baffert had a much better go of things in the $200,000 Seneca Overnight, where Consequent pulled clear for an easy 4 3/4-length score under Flavien Prat, running her career mark to 4 for 4.
By Into Mischief out of Cognitive, by Uncle Mo, Consequent won her November debut in a Del Mar maiden race, then captured the Grade 2 Starlet at Los Alamitos in December, but the filly didn’t run again until July 24. She defeated older allowance rivals at Ellis Park in her comeback run and, back with 3-year-old fillies, Consequent had no peer in the 1 1/16-mile Seneca.
Prat kept her glued outside the flank of longshot pacesetter Woodstock through a moderate opening half-mile, Consequent pulling to the lead before the far turn and going around the bend in hand while setting the pace. Three rivals stacked up just behind and outside her going to the quarter pole, but Prat had asked his mount for nothing, and when he nudged Consequent forward, she quickly opened daylight, the race all but over at the furlong grounds.
Answered Prayers finished a distant second, 5 1/2 lengths clear of third-place A. P.’s Girl. Consequent ($3.40) clocked 1:43.20, a raw time that produced a career-best 89 Beyer.
Doublecents also earned the highest speed figure of his career, a 97, running seven furlongs in 1:22.48 while beating runner-up Tagermeen and third-place Creole Chrome in the $295,000 Harrods Creek.
American Man, the 7-5 favorite, was taken back behind Creole Chrome just after the start, a deviation from his standard front-running style that did not produce the desired result. American Man found a wide gap along the fence when Creole Chrome drifted out turning for home, but was unable to push forward and go through the hole, settling for a well-beaten fourth.
Doublecents ($15.84) got a clean outside pressing trip under Francisco Arrieta, forging past Creole Chrome before the furlong grounds and gradually widening his advantage to the wire. By Goldencents out of Moka Latte, by Uncle Mo, Doublecents campaigns for Keene Thoroughbreds and won his first stakes race.
Creighton, his trainer, had only five previous stakes wins in a career dating to 1989, and while he won a stakes each of the last two years, including the Grade 3 Chick Lang with Frost Free in 2024, this was the richest purse a Creighton-trained horse has ever taken down.
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