Curly Jack, Fun and Feisty upset juvenile stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A couple of mild surprises were in store when the parallel roads to the 2023 Kentucky Derby and Oaks opened Saturday at Churchill Downs with a pair of longstanding fixtures for 2-year-olds, the Iroquois and Pocahontas.

With heavy favorites in their wake, Curly Jack was a 10-1 winner of the 41st Iroquois, followed an hour or so later by Fun and Feisty taking the 54th Pocahontas at 6-1.

The Grade 3 races with maximum purses of $300,000 apiece were run at 1 1/16 miles over a fast track and amid sultry late-summer weather, with the top five finishers earning qualifying points on a 10-4-3-2-1 basis toward their respective classic races next spring.

Iroquois

The $299,250 Iroquois was supposed to boil down to a race between the two favorites, Echo Again (3-5) and Damon’s Mound (5-2), and for a while, it most certainly did.

And then it all came unraveled. After the two sped past the quarter pole in tandem, primed for an epic stretch duel, the others suddenly began swallowing them up. In the final furlong and through the wire, it was Curly Jack and jockey Edgar Morales who emerged on top, with Honed rallying for second, Jace’s Road for third, and Hayes Strike for fourth.

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“Look, I thought this was a really tough race,” Tom Amoss, the trainer of Curly Jack, said afterward. “But if there was an equalizing factor, I thought these horses going two turns for the first time was going to help us. I’m really proud of our horse.”

Curly Jack, a Good Magic colt owned by Michael McLoughlin, returned $23.66 as fourth choice in a field of nine after finishing in 1:45.62. He was making his fourth start when coming off a narrow defeat in the seven-furlong Ellis Juvenile last month.

Damon’s Mound, a winner of his first two starts, both times sprinting, broke best to make the lead under Gabriel Saez before jockey Joel Rosario moved Echo Again, a flashy winner of his only start going 6 1/2 furlongs, to engage from the outside leaving the backstretch, with middle splits going in 47.48 and 1:11.66.

Neither could sustain those runs as Curly Jack rushed past at the furlong grounds to earn the first points toward the 149th Kentucky Derby on May 6, 2023.

At Ellis, “he showed me can relax well off horses and come with one run,” said Morales, who was winning a graded race for the first time in his five-year riding career. “We were able to do that today. He handled the extra distance well, and when I was able to get him outside, he showed his best run.”

Damon’s Mound faded to sixth and Echo Again to seventh. With them off the board, the $2 exacta (5-7) paid $754.06, the $1 trifecta (5-7-6) returned $1,776.34, and the 10-cent superfecta (5-7-6-1) was worth $1,917.59.

Pocahontas

Much like last fall, when their Smile Happy became a major Derby contender by winning the Kentucky Jockey Club, the Lucky Seven Stable of the Mackin family threw their hat into the Oaks ring when Fun and Feisty drew off to a flashy 3 1/2-length score in the $297,536 Pocahontas.

“I’m really happy for the Mackin family – again,” said Kenny McPeek, who trains Fun and Feisty for the Louisville enclave. “We’ve been on a pretty good run together the last couple of years. It’s a lot of fun winning races like this for them.”

Ridden by Julien Leparoux, Fun and Feisty rallied from 11th before taking over leaving the eighth pole with a steady outside surge. The Midshipman filly returned $14.46 as third choice in a field of 12 fillies after finishing in 1:45.86.

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Grand Love, the even-money favorite, had no apparent excuse when making the running under Rosario before fading to finish third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Shoplifter, who rallied up the rail to be second.

Fun and Feisty, by Midshipman, was coming off a maiden victory on the Aug. 13 Arlington Million opener at Churchill in her third career try.

“She’s going to want to go farther,” said McPeek, who won the 2015 and 2016 runnings of the Pocahontas with Dothraki Queen and Daddys Lil Darling, respectively. “This is a filly we’ve thought could be a good one for a really long time. It’s going to be an exciting fall.”

The Grade 1 Alcibiades, which McPeek has won five times, very likely is next for Fun and Feisty in preparing for the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland. The 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades is set for Oct. 7, also at Keeneland.

Besides Smile Happy, the Mackins also have had Rattle N Roll and Behave Virginia win stakes within the last 15 months or so.

The $2 exacta (10-4) paid $150.36, the $1 trifecta (10-4-5) returned $294.82, and the 10-cent superfecta (10-4-5-1) was worth $229.81.