Financial Modeling, Pleuven clash in Guilliams Memorial

The curtain comes down Monday on another eventful summer at Ellis Park, but not before one final program is run to keep the horseplayers’ interest.

The ninth running of the $50,000 Cliff Guilliams Memorial anchors a nine-race finale, and it won’t take fans long to decide that the 1 1/16-mile turf race essentially boils down to a pair of Chad Brown castoffs, Financial Modeling and Pleuven.

Financial Modeling was one of two older horses entered by trainer Brad Cox, but the other one, Allied Air Raid, will be scratched. Financial Modeling has been regrouped since failing to finish in an April race at Oaklawn Park.

“Obviously, he had an issue during that race,” Cox said, declining to specify the exact nature of the problem. “We took a corrective measure, and everything is good now. He’s been breezing extremely well up at Saratoga, and I couldn’t find a good spot for him there, so we decided on this. He’s training very well, and we’re excited about bringing him back.”

Shaun Bridgmohan has the call on Financial Modeling, who will break from post 4. The 5-year-old Kentucky-bred figures to vie for favoritism with Pleuven, who will have Channing Hill aboard when breaking from the outside post in a field that will max out at six.

Pleuven has run creditably in all five of his races since Phil Sims assumed his training over the winter at Keeneland. Easily his best effort for Sims was a 7-1 triumph in the Grade 2 Wise Dan in June on the Churchill Downs turf.

The last of 30 summer cards at “The Pea Patch” gets under way at 12:50 p.m. Central, with the Guilliams going as the fifth race at 2:42. The feature is named for the late racing writer and chart-caller who died unexpectedly in April 2008 at age 52.

Closing day also is Fan Appreciation Day at Ellis, the western Kentucky track that has conducted a race meet every year since 1925.

Action on the Kentucky circuit resumes Thursday with the second of five programs at Kentucky Downs. An 11-day meet at Churchill starts Sept. 16.

KEY CONTENDERS

Financial Modeling, by Street Sense

Last 3 Beyers: NA-102-104

◗ A 4-for-9 record for Brown peaked with a romp in the Queens County at Aqueduct last December, and although Cox conceded that his dirt form “might be better overall, he is 1 for 1 over turf, so we thought we’d give that a shot.”

Pleuven, by Turtle Bowl

Last 3 Beyers: 95-87-102

◗ Since his Wise Dan score over eventual Arlington Million runner-up Kasaqui, this French-bred gelding has been a twice-beaten favorite in ungraded stakes at Indiana Grand in July and Mountaineer in August.