Encino looks to press the reset button in Kentucky Cup Classic
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Encino is one of several older horses entered in stakes on Saturday who made a name for themselves last year at Turfway Park. He is looking to recapture his confidence and his best form in friendly surroundings as he headlines the Grade 3, $300,000 Kentucky Cup Classic.
Encino, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brad Cox, won the John Battaglia Memorial in February 2024 at Turfway to stamp himself as a Kentucky Derby candidate. Since then, his fortunes have taken several turns. He moved from the Tapeta to dirt to win the Grade 3 Lexington at Keeneland, earning his shot in the Derby. However, he was scratched the week of the race after being diagnosed with a soft-tissue injury while training.
The colt returned to the work tab in October and to the races on Jan. 16, winning a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Fair Grounds. A start in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile on March 1 followed, with his connections hoping that could be a springboard to a trip to Dubai.
“That got scrapped pretty quickly after that race,” said Michael Banahan, Godolphin’s director of bloodstock for the operation’s U.S. arm.
Encino led early at Gulfstream but faded to seventh, 21 lengths behind victorious Mindframe. While the colt’s opening half against a small field of four was 47.21 seconds at Fair Grounds, he went in 46.61 while racing on the inside against a group twice as big at Gulfstream.
“Just never felt like he was comfortable doing it for whatever reason,” Banahan said.
Three weeks later, Encino looks to regroup on a track he likes, and in more of a true route race.
“It’s a little bit quick back for what Brad would normally do, but he’s doing well,” Banahan said.
The 1 1/8-mile contest also features a pair of stakes winners from the current meet. Paros won the Prairie Bayou in December and Chiron won the Dust Commander last month. The Prairie Bayou was the fifth straight win for Paros, who subsequently finished off the board in a pair of Grade 3 turf races in Florida.
Latonia Stakes
Earlier on this marquee card at Turfway, Dana’s Beauty and Everland, both of whom won stakes on this program last year, meet again in the $300,000 Latonia Stakes for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles.
Dana’s Beauty won the 2024 Latonia by 2 3/4 lengths on the front end, while trained by Joe Sharp. She was sold to Resolute Racing following that score and moved to Mike Maker, for whom she won three more stakes on turf and synthetic in 2024. The most recent of those came when she bested Everland in the My Charmer on Dec. 14 at Turfway, getting the first jump on her late-running foe, winner of last year’s Bourbonette Oaks locally.
Everland, trained by Eric Foster, rebounded from that effort for a determined score in the Likely Exchange on Jan. 24, getting up in time after coming into the stretch with plenty to do. However, in the Wintergreen Stakes on March 1, she was kept a bit closer than usual on a track that was favoring speed, and lacked some punch, finishing seventh.
Dreaming of Mo, third in the Wintergreen, bested third-place Dana’s Beauty in a handicap on Gulfstream’s synthetic track two starts back.
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