Favorites in closing-day feature need some scrutiny
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Three turf allowance races and some substantive 2-year-old maiden action bring the curtain down Sunday on Churchill’s 14-day September meeting.
Leading jockey and leading trainer are up for grabs entering closing weekend, and so, too, is the featured 10th race.
Carded for 1 3/8 miles around three turns on grass, the Sunday nightcap is open to older second-level allowance horses and $80,000 claimers: Four horses were entered for the claiming price, seven more under the race’s allowance conditions.
Post position could play a key role, as this race features a short run to the first bend and can prove tricky for horses drawn outside. Telescopic breaks from post 10 as the 3-1 favorite, and between his tough draw and the fact he ran the best race of his career just three weeks ago at Kentucky Downs, Telescopic might hold more appeal as a shorter price to play against than support.
The same can be said of Warlander, 7-2 on the morning line. Claimed for $80,000 on June 20, Warlander was freshened through the summer to start at Kentucky Downs, a course he’d handled in the past, and connections – owner Jordan Wycoff and trainer Mike Maker – hit their mark. Warlander, racing in a first-level allowance over 1 1/2 miles, won by a head and banked $108,000. But Warlander got a soft trip pressing a slow pace, looks like something of a Kentucky Downs specialist, and now moves to a more conventional course while stepping up a level in class. Those are not the characteristics of a horse worth playing at his expected odds.
Four horses exit a 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Downs race at this class level, and Guns and Glory might be the one to take Sunday. Guns and Glory debuted as an early 3-year-old in Dubai and made his first 10 starts there, rising to become a decent handicap runner not up to group stakes snuff. He was sent from trainer Bhupat Seemar to Wesley Ward in Kentucky. Ward ran him for $25,000 in his American debut, and Guns and Glory changed barns. His new connections remained on the dirt path, but after being claimed again in June, Guns and Glory was moved to turf – to good effect. He improved upon his dirt form in his first turf try, and while stepping way up in class at Kentucky Downs, Guns and Glory finished with a solid run after racing at least five paths wide the entire far turn.
Mackinac should win race 8, a first-level turf sprint allowance, though as a considerably shorter favorite than her 7-2 morning line. The same might be said – though with less confidence in success – of Hit the High Note in race 3, a nonwinners-of-two grass route for 2-year-olds. Hit the High Note exits a respectable run behind a brilliant win from How’s Al Today in the $750,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile.
First-time starting 2-year-old She’s Toasty and Treat Me Nice have worked well for their respective debuts in the first race, a restricted maiden, while firster Kamassa caught the eye in his final breeze for his debut in race 3.
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