Here Mi Song well drawn outside in Jeff Hall Memorial
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Last-out stakes winner Necker Island, the defending winner of the $125,000 Jeff Hall Memorial at Ellis Park, holds a recency edge in Saturday’s renewal of the race for older sprinters as he braces for a pair of formidable foes in graded stakes winner Here Mi Song and graded-placed O Besos, coming off respective breaks of different lengths.
Here Mi Song is favored on the morning line in the Hall Memorial for his local connections. He races as a homebred for Nathan Hayden and is trained by Billy Stinson Jr., both of Henderson, Ky. The 5-year-old gelding had a tale of two post positions in his strong efforts this spring, both in graded stakes at seven furlongs. He drew post 9 of 10 in the Grade 3 Commonwealth in April at Keeneland, which allowed him an ideal trip racing in the clear, rallying to the lead with a four-wide bid and holding sway by a neck in a long drive.
Here Mi Song ran back in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs on the Kentucky Derby undercard and drew the rail in the field of nine. Worried about being boxed in, Stinson told jockey Alex Achard to hustle out of the gate.
“We took him out of his game being on the front end, but when you’ve got the one hole and all the horses in the race have the same kind of running style, we thought we’d rather try that than get boxed in,” Stinson said.
Here Mi Song led into the turn of the seven-furlong race and continued on gamely into the stretch before ultimately finishing fourth, beaten six lengths by top-rated Cody’s Wish. Here Mi Song was then vanned off. All X-rays taken on-site at Churchill that afternoon came back negative, and Stinson said scans taken last month as an additional precaution also were clear.
“Probably, he was just tired,” Stinson said, adding that the gelding’s attitude in training is solid. “He’s the biggest clown you’ve ever seen. He’s just having fun.”
Here Mi Song, who has fired two strong recent works at Ellis, is drawn outside in this field of nine under Achard. While he would prefer more ground than this 6 1/2 furlongs, Stinson was hopeful the draw would lead to an ideal trip.
“He ought to be laying close, and the way speed’s holding at Ellis, you have to be close,” Stinson said. “That’s the game plan, anyway.”
Classier and Go West appear to be the committed speed in this field. Classier won the Henry Clark on the front end at Laurel this year.
Necker Island, trained by Chris Hartman, raced just off the pace in winning the off-the-turf Mighty Beau on June 18 at Ellis for his third career stakes win, although against just two foes. He could find himself forwardly placed.
Some pace up front would suit O Besos, who reinvented himself last year as a rallying sprinter after graded placings on the 2021 Kentucky Derby trail. In his most recent outings, he was third in the Grade 3 Commonwealth in April 2022; won an allowance/optional-claiming race at Churchill Downs in October; and was a creditable fifth, beaten 3 1/2 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, rallying from 10th.
A quarantine for equine herpesvirus at Churchill Downs ended O Besos’s season last year, as he was not permitted to ship to Aqueduct to race. His first of five 2023 works for Greg Foley came on May 25, and he most recently turned in a sharp half-mile on July 14.
"He's coming up to the race great," said Foley, who said "a couple dings here and there" kept O Besos away for the extended period.
"He looks great. I think he's fit and ready to go, and thought this was a good spot to get him started back."
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