Field Day shakes off poor start, takes William Walker
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Field Day overcame a poor start by rallying with a flourish for a popular victory in the $150,000 William Walker as Churchill Downs opened a 38-day spring meet Saturday night with a 10-race Downs After Dark card.
Away awkwardly from post 1 in a field of eight 3-year-olds in the 5 1/2-furlong turf race, Field Day and jockey Tyler Gaffalione were able to somehow reel in the race-long front-runner, Bodenheimer, in the shadow of the wire. He returned $5.60 as favorite after finishing in 1:05.63 over a wet turf course rated good.
Richard Klein bred and owns Field Day, a Broken Vow gelding trained by Brad Cox.
:: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now.
“Tyler did a good job not panicking,” Cox said in a post-race Churchill in-house interview. “He let him get his feet underneath of him, finding his way up the backside and kicked on down the lane.”
On a dank and drizzly night, and with ontrack attendance limited because of the ongoing pandemic, Bodenheimer and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. had turned away a persistent challenger, Into the Sunrise, to open daylight on the field inside the furlong pole, but a searing run by Field Day was just in time. Cees Got Degrees was third and Rockstar Ro was fourth.
Field Day now has never been worse than third in seven career starts, with three resulting in wins.
The only other race on the card scheduled for turf was moved to the main track because of intermittent rain virtually all day.
An original cast of 12 was reduced by four early scratches – Roderick, Next, Cowan, and Charles Chrome.
The $2 exacta (3-7) paid $37.80, the $1 trifecta (3-7-9) returned $354.50, and the 10-cent superfecta (3-7-9-6) was worth $217.04.
There is no racing Sunday at Churchill. A stretch of five straight days of racing spans Tuesday through Saturday, Kentucky Derby Day.