Deep fields set for closing-day stakes
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Deep Flame, frankly, is a diminutive fellow. Watch him work alongside a horse with some heft, and you might mistake Deep Flame for a pony. But it is time for the colt, a mere maiden winner, to step onto a bigger stage. He does so Sunday – closing day of the spring meet at Churchill Downs – facing fellow 3-year-olds over seven furlongs in the Grade 3, $250,000 Maxfield Stakes.
A Juddmonte Farms homebred by Into Mischief, Deep Flame resides in the barn of trainer Brad Cox, who sent the colt from his Payson Park base in Florida to debut Feb. 14 at Fair Grounds. Deep Flame turned in a performance that would have won many Fair Grounds maidens but ran into a career-best showing from a colt named Trouble Calling, who rocketed home a 6 1/2-length winner with a 91 Beyer Speed Figure.
Deep Flame actually topped that figure second time out at Keeneland, where he got a 92 Beyer – while finishing second again. A second-time starter, Gilded Bandit, wore Deep Flame down in the final half-furlong, beating him by a half-length. Gilded Bandit went on to capture a first-level allowance a Churchill, earning a 93 Beyer, then finished a respectable fourth behind runaway winner Englishman in the Grade 1 Woody Stephens, this time with a 94 Beyer.
Deep Flame ran back May 17 at Churchill, and this time, no one could stop him. He won a seven-furlong maiden race by seven lengths, his Beyer jumping to a 95. On Sunday, he is well drawn in post 7 under Irad Ortiz Jr.
“We normally don’t jump from maiden races to a graded stake, but he has some race experience,” Cox said. “It’s not like he just won first time out. We’ve been pointing for this since his last run. I like the post and I think he fits with the group.”
The morning-line maker agrees. Deep Flame stands as the 9-5 favorite on the line.
The odds gap between him and second choice Brant, however, might not come up as wide as predicted. Brant, a 3-1 chance on the morning line with Flavien Prat riding for trainer Bob Baffert, could even be favored.
Amr Zedan paid $3 million for Brant at a 2-year-old sale, that despite the colt going with a very janky left front leg action. Stride shape did nothing to hinder Brant from sharply winning two sprints to start his career, debuting with a 101 Beyer and coming right back to capture the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity by one length. He ended the year with a close third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Brant dashed whatever Derby hopes connections might’ve harbored when he checked in a lackluster fifth making his 3-year-old debut in the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe on March 7, but he remains unbeaten sprinting and has hit a higher level than Deep Flame.
None of the other six can easily be dismissed, particularly outside-drawn Crown the Buckeye, who cuts back a furlong and did not get his trip last out in the Pat Day Mile.
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Hanshin Stakes
Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. literally laughed when asked how he thought his entrant, Neoequos, fit Sunday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Hanshin Stakes.
“That race! It’s a wide, wide-open competition, two or three lengths between most of the horses,” Joseph said. “There are 10 of them and anyone can win.”
The morning line reflects as much, with Dragoon Guard set as a most tepid 4-1 favorite.
Will he be favored? Should he be favored? Dragoon Guard, Ortiz riding for trainer Brad Cox and breeder Juddmonte Farms, hasn’t won a stakes race since August 2024. Last out, in the restricted Knicks Go, like the Hanshin a one-turn Churchill mile, Dragoon Guard finished third behind Tour Player and Moonlight, both runners in Sunday’s contest.
Tour Player merits the favorite’s role. He decisively handled Dragoon Guard two races back in a one-turn mile Colonial stakes race, and his 2 1/2-length Knicks Go score ran his Churchill mark to five wins from six starts. Not much seems different in the Hanshin, where Tour Player has the right draw, in post 10, to get his preferred stalking trip. Tyler Gaffalione takes the mount for trainer Whit Beckman, with Flavien Prat leaving to ride Imagination.
Bob Baffert trained Tour Player for his wife, Natalie Baffert, before the horse sold for $350,000 at a December auction, and Baffert still trains Imagination. Second last fall going six furlongs in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Imagination just raced June 6 at Saratoga, finishing an even fourth in the True North, a Grade 1-level race dressed in Grade 3 clothing.
But if you like Imagination on the basis of his third-place showing May 2 at Churchill in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs, what about Crazy Mason, who finished stronger and beat Imagination by a nose in that race?
Crazy Mason, a Silky Sullivan type who will fall back to last in the early stages, went home after the Churchill Downs to trainer Greg Sacco’s Delaware Park base, where he has posted five timed workouts for the Hanshin. That’s a mark of a horse who’s thriving. Crazy Mason needs pace help, but if he gets it, he could be the one in a wide-open Hanshin.
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