Euro invader battles veteran turf marathoners in Sycamore

The old-timers had better keep an eye on a young buck in the Grade 3, $300,000 Sycamore Stakes, the featured ninth race Friday at Keeneland.

Nine-year-olds Channel Maker and Red Knight have won graded turf stakes this season, Red Knight landing the Grade 1 Man o’ War. Red Knight’s Mike Maker-trained 8-year-old stablemate Therapist won the Grade 1 United Nations. Seven-year-old Highest Honor finished third in the 2022 Sycamore, and 7-year-old Another Mystery twice was third in the Elkhorn Stakes, the spring sister race to the Sycamore, both over 1 1/2 miles on turf.

They all are giving weight, some as much as seven pounds, to 3-year-old Bold Act, an improving Godolphin gelding trained by Charlie Appleby who exits a troubled trip in France and probably will enjoy his first stab at American racing.

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“Conditions out there will suit, and he should hopefully be a major player,” Appleby said.

The race drew 16 entrants, only a dozen of whom can run, and the three-turn Sycamore will be contested on a firm course unless an isolated shower, of which there’s a slim chance, passes over Keeneland during an unseasonably warm afternoon. The race begins with a short run into the far turn leaving outside posts at a disadvantage, though none of the key players drew wide.

Five horses in the field’s main body come out of the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Turf Cup, run Sept. 9 at Kentucky Downs over a course at least biased toward inside paths and likely also toward front-runners. Get Smokin’ went wire to wire in the Turf Cup, with Red Knight, a tepid favorite, a closing fourth, beaten just a head and a nose for second. Red Knight finished a troubled eighth in the 2022 Sycamore and has been around so long that he won the 2020 renewal while trained by Bill Mott. In the Turf Cup, which Red Knight won in 2022, he spent much of his trip along the rail before being pulled out for a steady run punctuated by an especially strong final 50 yards.

Therapist beat Red Knight in the 11-furlong United Nations in July, and while that was a career peak the gelding might struggle to reach again, he had no chance in the Turf Cup, where he checked in eighth. Therapist broke from post 11 and raced near the back of the field during the early and middle stages, then was caught three or four paths wide with no cover around the far turn, an impossible trip considering conditions.

Channel Maker, who is closing on $4 million in earnings, was fourth in the 2022 Sycamore and fourth this past spring in the Elkhorn at Keeneland. He’ll try for the lead along with Tawny Port, but Cellist should set the pace. Cellist exits a pure prep over a distance far short of his best at Churchill Downs and will be dangerous if dictating a slow tempo.

Bold Act needs luck as a likely deep closer. It took the gelding six starts to make his stakes debut, but he’s come around nicely the last several months. He was too far back in the Group 3 Hampton Court at Royal Ascot but finished fastest in a 16-runner field and nabbed third. Appleby experimented with cheek pieces July 8 in the Prix Eugene Adam; that kept Bold Act closer to the pace, but he lost position at a key moment in the stretch, surged late for third, and raced without cheek pieces notching a solid win in listed stakes competition in August. Bold Act tried 1 1/2 miles for the first time Sept. 8 at Saint-Cloud and was moving well in the homestretch before getting completely stopped in the final furlong, which led to a fifth-place finish. With better fortune, he should exceed that performance Friday under Jamie Spencer.

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