Giant Payday gets break from the heavyweights

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ian Wilkes has one of this year’s standout 3-year-olds in Kentucky Derby contender McCraken. Another sophomore in his barn, Giant Payday, has knocked heads with some other talented members of the crop, with names such as Not This Time, Guest Suite, and Ticonderoga appearing in his past performances.

Giant Payday gets some class relief in a Wednesday’s seventh race at Keeneland, a conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds on turf – one of two such races anchoring the card as the meet moves into its final days. Keeneland runs Wednesday through Friday, and Kentucky racing moves to Churchill Downs on Saturday.

Giant Payday, who will have Chris Landeros in the irons, comes off two deceptively solid performances in graded stakes, based on his Beyer Speed Figures.

The colt earned the highest Beyer in Wednesday’s field, an 81, when he was fifth to Ticonderoga in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes. He then was sixth in the Grade 3 Spiral Stakes on Turfway’s Polytrack, beaten just three lengths by the Kentucky Derby-bound Fast and Accurate. His Beyer of 77 for the Spiral is the top last-out number in this field.

Two others in the field also exit Turfway stakes, including Soglio, who finished seventh in the Spiral after he was fractious in the paddock and then stumbled at the start. The Graham Motion trainee was stakes-placed as a juvenile on the Santa Anita turf.

Gorgeous Kitten had a productive winter at Turfway for trainer Mike Maker and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, perennial Keeneland leaders who have been quiet at this meet. Gorgeous Kitten finished third in the Rushaway Stakes on the Spiral undercard.

In Wednesday’s other 3-year-old allowance, the fifth race, two entrants run back after good efforts earlier in the meet. Channel Marker, a Grade 2-placed stakes winner last year at Woodbine, made his first start since moving to Bill Mott’s barn in an allowance race on April 8. He was a gaining fourth while going a mile and gets an extra furlong this time out.

Meanwhile, Makarios comes back after finishing third in the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes on opening day for Nick Zito.

Holiday Bonus, stakes-placed on dirt last year, also makes his second start off a trainer switch, having moved to Motion earlier this year. He finished third in an optional-claiming event at Tampa Bay Downs, his first start in five months and his first try on turf.

◗ Entering the final three days of Keeneland’s spring meet, Wesley Ward leads the trainer standings, largely due to his success with 2-year-olds. Ward has entrants in both juvenile maiden races on Wednesday, including Day of Reckoning, whom he also owns, in the second race on the card. The colt is by juvenile champion and well-regarded freshman sire Shanghai Bobby.

◗ There is a pick-six carryover of $13,950 for Wednesday.