Grays Lake Stakes no cinch for world traveler Han Sense
Let’s just say that if there’s an equine conduit between Meydan Racecourse in Dubai and Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, no one has discovered it. Yet the 9-5 morning-line favorite Saturday at Prairie Meadows in the $65,000 Grays Lake Stakes, a six-furlong dash for Iowa-bred 3-year-olds, is a horse named Han Sense.
And Han Sense makes his first start Saturday since spending a good part of the winter in Dubai, where he had two unproductive runs at palatial Meydan Racecourse.
His surroundings Saturday will be decidedly less glamorous – as will the competition. Still, while Han Sense has pre-Dubai form to make him a clear contender in the Grays Lake, he’s no cinch in a surprisingly deep field that includes seven others.
The best of those at the moment appears to be Molleck.
Molleck, a Henny Hughes gelding, showed ability last season at age 2, and finished fourth to end his season in the Iowa Cradle Stakes. But Molleck returned to action May 4 for a new trainer, Gene Jacquot, and at a new, higher performance level.
Facing older horses in a first-level Iowa-bred allowance race, Molleck stalked the pace while racing wide, descended on the leaders midway around the far turn, and blew them away when he ran his fifth furlong in a sharp 12.18 seconds, almost a half-second faster than the next-fastest fraction in the race.
He beat a horse named Domikate by more than six lengths and was flattered when Domikate returned to win at the same class level.
Molleck has another outside draw Saturday and shows two encouraging works since his eye-catching comeback score.
Han Sense breaks from the other end of the starting gate, and his rail draw is not ideal for a horse lacking sprint speed and who probably wants to run farther. Han Sense was advanced enough at age 2 that trainer Mike Maker sent him to Prairie Meadows to debut in the Iowa Cradle, and Han Sense won it by 1 1/2 lengths. That’s his only victory, but Han Sense managed a troubled second in the Grade 2 Nashua last Nov. 4 at Aqueduct. He was fifth behind the good colt Thunder Snow making his first start in Dubai, but tailed of markedly finishing up the track second time out in the March 4 Al Bastakiya.
Basic Chance, a pure front-running type, enters in the best form of his career, but he runs back two weeks after being claimed from the barn of high-percentage Karl Broberg, is coming off three peak efforts, and will be tested for quality Saturday.