Factor This will have to be caught in Grade 2 Wise Dan

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs racegoers who have spent recent years enjoying the simulcast of the Belmont Stakes on the Big Board will just have to make other plans for Saturday as the track maintains its spectator-free policy amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Whether they’re at home or with friends watching racing on a (presumably) smaller screen, fans ought to be able to squeeze in a couple of Churchill stakes prior to the Belmont simulcast (5:42 p.m. Eastern). The $100,000 Audubon (race 6) goes at 3:25 and the Grade 2, $200,000 Wise Dan (race 9) goes at 5:01. Both are two-turn turf races on an 11-race card that starts at 1.

The late daily double, a pair of maiden-specials (races 10 and 11), will be worked around the Belmont simulcast at 5:33 and 6:05.

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High temperatures Saturday are expected to reach about 90 amid mostly sunny skies. Fox Sports (FS1 and FS2) is providing extensive live television coverage of Churchill action every day.

Wise Dan

Unless a longshot such as Ritzy A.P. or a newly gelded Emmaus can keep him honest up front, there’s a distinct possibility Factor This will go wire to wire in this 31st running of the 1 1/16-mile Wise Dan.

Factor This “is sharp right now,” said Brad Cox, who led the local trainer standings through 19 of 27 days of the spring meet. “His last two breezes over the turf have been really good.”

Shaun Bridgmohan will be back aboard Factor This after guiding the 5-year-old horse to front-running scores in his last two starts, the Grade 3 Fair Grounds and the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial. His time in both races equated to triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures (102 and 104).

“He’s actually been ready to run again for a while, but obviously there hasn’t been a spot for him with all that’s been going on,” said Cox.

Ten other older horses will line up against Factor This, who breaks from post 3. Mike Maker and Graham Motion will account for half of those – Maker with the trio of Aquaphobia (post 5, Corey Lanerie), Hembree (post 10, Gerardo Corrales), and Parlor (post 11, Tyler Gaffalione), and Motion with the inside duo of Just Howard (post 1, Rafael Bejarano) and English Bee (post 2, Jimmy Graham).

Of those, maybe Parlor rates the best chance to reel in Factor This. Claimed in late November for $80,000, the 6-year-old gelding seems to have reached peak form, exemplified by a just-miss runner-up finish earlier this meet in a high-end allowance contested by eight graded stakes winners.

The Wise Dan had been known as the Firecracker until being renamed in 2016 to honor the two-time Horse of the Year (2012-13) and recent Hall of Fame electee.

Audubon

A poor start cost Field Pass pretty much all chance in the War Chant, the May 23 nightcap which shapes up as the key race toward the 1 1/8-mile Audubon. Still, the gray Lemon Drop Kid colt persisted to finish a respectable third as the favorite in an effort that further validated his prior victories in the Dania Beach at Gulfstream and the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway.

Gaffalione has the call for Maker on Field Pass, who will break from post 6 and faces seven other 3-year-olds. Pixelate (post 4, Mitchell Murrill) is among the primary opposition after finishing second in the War Chant at 13-1.

Other possibilities include Summer to Remember (post 8, Florent Geroux), a recent arrival from Florida for Todd Pletcher; Kinenos (post 7, Bridgmohan), making his stakes debut off back-to-back wins for Cox; and Spanish Kingdom (post 2, Brian Hernandez Jr.), a 26-1 winner of a turf allowance at this same distance earlier in the meet for Joe Sharp.

This is the first running of the Audubon, named for the famed American naturalist and a long-established neighborhood located just a few miles east of the track.