DeVaux hopes to continue blinkers trend with Remember Mamba in Bryan Station

It has been, to say the least, a good year for “blinkers on” in the barn of trainer Cherie DeVaux.

DeVaux added blinkers to the 3-year-old turf horse Supercharger and a few races later got a win in the Grade 2 Secretariat. She added blinkers to 5-year-old turf miler Brilliant Berti in August and he promptly landed the $300,000 Green River Island. Oh – and there’s this one. In March, DeVaux raced Golden Tempo in blinkers for the first time. In May, he won the Kentucky Derby.

Saturday, it’s Remember Mamba getting the blinkers-on treatment as one of the favorites in the Grade 2, $400,000 Bryan Station Stakes, and DeVaux hopes the hood can help late-running Remember Mamba get up at a one-mile distance once thought to be shorter than the horse prefers.

“Hopefully, the blinkers help him to get a better position,” DeVaux said.

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DeVaux ran one-two in the 2024 Bryan Station, won by Brilliant Berti, and the morning line sets Remember Mamba as the tepid 3-1 favorite over 7-2 Bottas.

While one mile might fall on the short side of Remember Mamba’s ideal distance range, it appears to be the sweet spot for Bottas. Winner of the Pilgrim Stakes at 2, Bottas had a troubled trip finishing third in his 3-year-old debut, the Pennine Ridge on June 4 at Saratoga. A month later, Bottas did himself no favors failing to properly settle during the early stages of the Belmont Derby, which, at 1 1/8 miles, might have been a touch farther than he truly wants to run.

Cut back to one mile, Bottas has won two in a row, landing the Hall of Fame at Saratoga and turning in a particularly strong performance in the Gun Runner at Kentucky Downs. Bottas did get a favorable pace setup in the Gun Runner, but once launched into action coming off the long far turn by jockey Jose Ortiz, Bottas appeared to be moving twice as fast as any of his rivals, cutting down pacesetting Conducted in the final half-furlong.

Ortiz, however, rides Remember Mamba on Saturday with Tyler Gaffalione picking up the mount on Bottas.

Conducted figures to lead again in the Bryan Station but probably can’t go clear, as he did in the Gun Runner, without setting an intemperate tempo. Aces Honor should show some speed, and Infiltrate perhaps even more.

Infiltrate, one of two in the race along with Immortalised for trainer Brendan Walsh, returned from a long layoff with a strong second in the Secretariat but flopped in the Gun Runner, finishing 11th. Walsh brought him back Sept. 26 to try the Bourbon Flight on Churchill’s dirt track.

“I know he’s a better horse on turf,” said Walsh. And Infiltrate’s jockey came back after the Gun Runner and said the horse never handled the undulating Kentucky Downs course. “He said he never felt right coming down the hill.”

Blackout Time is Grade 1-placed and tries turf for the first time while making his 10th start. His pedigree slants toward grass racing, but trainer Kenny McPeek is 1 for 32 the last five years with horses making their turf debut in a stakes race.

Touch of Fire keeps finding ways to lose and breaks from post 11, while Alpyland – blinkers on for trainer Mark Casse – has an even worse draw in post 12. A really deep cut might get you down to longshot McCready, who won at Keeneland in the spring and endured an abysmal trip finishing third behind Remember Mamba in the Black Gold at Fair Grounds.

Remember Mamba won the Transylvania in April at Keeneland and finished a strong closing second in the American Turf at Churchill in May. He ran well enough in two Saratoga stakes; perhaps not his best.

“I’m not necessarily sure if he liked the turf course there, because he’s run better everywhere,” DeVaux said. “He’s had a freshening, and the cut back in distance.”

And blinkers on.

◗ The $250,000 Bowman Mill, a six-furlong sprint for 2-year-olds, was not well received by horsemen. The race drew five entrants including a first-time starter from trainer Jerry Dixon Jr., whose record in stakes races stands at 0 for 1. Steve Asmussen entered Grand Yaupon and Booked, the two favorites, while Gulfstream debut winner Conviction and Churchill debut winner Just for Pipa round out the field.

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