Good Lord in good position for Bernhardt Stakes

Saturday’s $50,000 Don Bernhardt Stakes at Ellis Park can be summed up in two words: Good Lord.

Not the expression of astonishment – though the Don Bernhardt does offer a talented field of sprinters for a $50,000 stakes race – rather, Good Lord is the name of the favorite, a winner of two straight sprints by open lengths at Churchill Downs, most recently in the Kelly’s Landing overnight stakes there.

In each of his victories at Churchill, Good Lord sprang to the lead and was never threatened, running quickly in seven-furlong contests. In winning an optional claimer May 26, he raced the distance in 1:21.63, earning a 99 Beyer Speed Figure, then went in 1:22.45 over a more tiring track June 28 in the Kelly’s Landing, posting a 95.

Cutting back in distance to 6 1/2 furlongs for the Don Bernhardt and shifting to Ellis Park shouldn’t faze him. He has won this race the past two years.

Leandro Goncalves picks up the mount on Good Lord, a 7-year-old gelded son of Greatness owned by Thomas Shank and Stan Young and trained by the veteran Forrest Kaelin.

Ghost Is Clear, a multiple stakes winner, is Good Lord’s principal adversary in the six-horse field, with the late-running Nicklaus Way looming a threat off a $50,000 claiming victory June 27 at Churchill.

Tom Amoss, who claimed Nicklaus Way last month for owner Maggi Moss, has a superb record with first-after-claim runners. According to Daily Racing Form’s Formulator, Amoss has won at a 32 percent clip over the past five years with first-after-claim runners ($1.80).

Many of those claims came for Moss, who acquires the majority of her horses via claims. The leading owner at the recently concluded Churchill Downs meet, she is winning at a 38 percent rate in 2014.

Mike Maker, the trainer of Ghost Is Clear, has a nice record with horses seeking repeat wins.

Per another Formulator statistic, Maker has a 26 percent win record ($1.81) over the past five years with horses coming off wins – such as Ghost Is Clear heading into the Don Bernhardt. He won the Dark Star Stakes off a layoff of almost three months June 15, running a 94 Beyer, marginally behind the top last figure in the race posted by Good Lord.

The makeup of the race appears in Good Lord’s favor, with the two other speed horses in the race dropping out of routes and perhaps not having as much quickness as Good Lord. And even if they are sent, drawn outside in post 6, Good Lord can just as easily sit in a pressing position.