Cornhusker winner Giant Game possible for Whitney or Charles Town Classic
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Giant Game could chase a giant purse next month at either Saratoga Race Course or Charles Town.
After winning the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap on Saturday night at Prairie Meadows, he has a couple of seven-figure options on the immediate horizon.
"The Whitney would be possible, or the Charles Town," trainer Dale Romans said Monday. "We’ll see how he comes out of it and talk about it. We’ll figure it out."
The Grade 1, $1 million Whitney on Aug. 5 at Saratoga is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge qualifier for the Classic. The Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic is a three-turn race to be held Aug. 25.
Both stakes will be run over the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Cornhusker. Giant Game led throughout to win his first stakes race by three-quarters of a length over Skippylongstocking. He earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 99.
“I thought he ran huge,” Romans said. “He was a good 2-year-old, had a setback. He’s always had the potential. He’s just getting the opportunity to show what he’s worth.”
Giant Game, who at 2 ran third in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, races for West Point Thoroughbreds and Albaugh Family Stables. He came into the Cornhusker off a first-level allowance win at Churchill Downs.
Romans said the allowance win and the manner in which Giant Game subsequently trained put him in position for a start in the Cornhusker. The race was the barn’s goal because it fell the night after co-owner Dennis Albaugh was to be inducted into the hall of fame at Prairie Meadows.
“We were going to make a big weekend of it and he up and won the race,” Romans said of Giant Game. “Dennis already had had a big weekend.”
Albaugh joined the hall on Friday night. He is a longtime owner who had three horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby, led by third-place finisher Angel of Empire. Albaugh is the chairman of the board of Prairie Meadows.
“We are honored to pay tribute to a wonderful Iowan, a passionate philanthropist and horse owner and breeder,” Gary Palmer, president of Prairie Meadows, said in a press release. “His commitment and passion has been and will continue to be instrumental to the success of the Iowa Racing industry.”
Romans said Giant Game is back in Kentucky. The son of Giant’s Causeway is a half-brother to Grade 2 winner Isotherm. Both horses have earned just over $500,000.
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