Grand Sonata holds slight edge over Limited Liability in Elkhorn

The 6-year-old grass horse Grand Sonata’s 2025 campaign has at its heart a 1 1/2-mile turf race at a Kentucky track whose name starts with the letter “K.”

Last Sept. 7, Grand Sonata hit the line first by a half-length in the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Turf Cup at Kentucky Downs. The race was worth $2 million. Grand Sonata, trained by Todd Pletcher for his breeder, Whisper Hill Farm, picked up a paycheck just less than $1.2 million, more than he’d earned in his first 23 starts. Finding a horse who likes quirky Kentucky Downs can be half the battle.

“Obviously, our goal is to get him back there in the best possible shape,” Pletcher said.

On the way, another 1 1/2-mile grass race at a “K” track in Kentucky – the Grade 2, $400,000 Elkhorn on Saturday at Keeneland.

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An overflow field of 13 ended up in the Elkhorn, a three-turn race with a short run to the first of those bends, the starting gate accommodating a dozen runners. Native Shaman, 30-1 on the morning line, is the also-eligible.

To win for the first time since the Kentucky Turf Cup, Grand Sonata must beat another Kentucky Downs winner, Limited Liability. Listed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite under Frankie Dettori, Limited Liability landed the Nashville Gold Cup four days after Grand Sonata’s rich score.

Both horses have Keeneland grass experience. Grand Sonata finished second three springs ago in the Transylvania Stakes, and eight days later, Limited Liability won a first-level allowance by a neck. A year after that, Limited Liability captured a second-level allowance by a head, and in October 2023 finished a solid third going 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 3 Sycamore.

Limited Liability’s blowout front-running win in the 2 1/16-mile Nashville Gold shows what kind of horse he is, a true stayer who can sustain his pace over long distances but lacks a quick burst. He should get a favorable stalking trip behind Dean Martini and Idratherbeblessed, the latter a wire-to-wire 86-1 winner of the $300,000 Muniz Memorial over 1 1/8 miles at Fair Grounds last month.

Grand Sonata won’t be confused with a miler, but quickens more than Limited Liability, though he couldn’t muster quite enough late speed to run down his slow-pace setting stablemate Capture the Flag in the 1 3/8-mile Mac Diarmida on March 1 at Gulfstream Park. In fact, the Kentucky Turf Cup marks Grand Sonata’s only win in his last 12 starts, though he always races competitively in Grade 2s and Grade 3s at 11 or 12 furlongs.

“He’s been an extremely consistent hard-knocking horse,” Pletcher said.

The fifth- and sixth-place Mac Diarmida finishers, Anglophile and Missed the Cut, also show up in the Elkhorn. While Anglophile had moderate trouble, blocked while trying to rally up the rail in the homestretch, Missed the Cut had a terrible trip and ran well to nab sixth. A chain reaction going into the first of three turns led to a rival dropping down into Missed the Cut’s path. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione took up sharply and nearly came out of his irons as Missed the Cut dropped out of a favorable position to race last of 11. The horse still came running off the final turn and into the homestretch but lacked room while caught between horses.

Missed the Cut, a Grade 3 winner over 1 1/2 miles, was making his first start for trainer Cherie DeVaux and first since an ambitious trip last June to Royal Ascot, where Missed the Cut lost by 30 lengths in the 1 1/2-mile Hardwicke, a salty Group 2.

“I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from him in his first start for us, but I was really encouraged he dealt with adversity and still came with a run. He’s trained forwardly out of that and hopefully we can move forward,” DeVaux said.

DeVaux also expects improvement from Rebel Red. He ended his 2024 campaign – during which he lost an eye in a Saratoga stall injury – with a sharp win, albeit with a great setup, in a 1 1/8-mile Keeneland allowance race and a good third in the 1 3/8-mile Red Smith, where Limited Liability beat him a nose. Rebel Red returned from a layoff of more than four months with a tame seventh in the slow-paced Muniz.

“We were just getting his season started there and wanted to get him to these longer races,” DeVaux said.

Pletcher is trying to get Grand Sonata to Kentucky Downs in early September. Five months before, he rates a solid chance in the Elkhorn at Keeneland.

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