If moved to dirt, Big Blue Line and Super Design figure
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials intended to give their new turf course more action at the fall meet, but the weather has been highly uncooperative. Exactly one turf race has been run through the first 11 of 19 fall programs, with no untoward incidents nor major complaints resulting from that Nov. 3 race.
Another turf race is carded Friday as the only allowance of a 10-race program that starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, but bitter cold and lingering dampness make the chances of a surface switch a 1-9 shot. All five races scheduled for the turf last week, including three in the Claiming Crown on Saturday and the River City on Sunday, were moved to the dirt.
Seventeen 3-year-olds and upward are entered in the ninth of 10 Friday races, a $134,000 second-level allowance scheduled to go 1 1/16 miles on the turf, but surely that number will dwindle substantially if the race is moved to the main track. Over turf, Bizzee Channel and the Juddmonte Farms newcomer Straight Answer would rank among the top contenders in what shapes up as a deep field, but the far more likely scenario is Big Blue Line and the recently claimed Super Design will draw the most tote attention with a move to the main track.
Big Blue Line, one of three “main track only” designates, won back-to-back races in the spring over the Churchill main track, where the 3-year-old Maryland-bred trains regularly for Paul McGee. Four straight out-of-town defeats have followed those local wins, although all of them came in rugged company and this race clearly will represent a welcome measure of class relief. Joe Talamo has the mount.
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Super Design was haltered for $50,000 from his last race, a front-running victory Oct. 27 at Keeneland, by trainer Tom Amoss on behalf of Michael Winters. With Amoss currently serving a seven-day suspension for a medication violation in Indiana, Super Design will race in the name of Amoss’ assistant, Jose Delacruz Mejia. The Florida-bred 4-year-old is entered back for the $80,000 claiming option that’s part of these race conditions. Edgar Morales will ride.
Big Blue Line and Super Design both will be competing for the equivalent of $87,000, given that purses for all Churchill races include substantial bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.
The would-be contender Militarist definitely will be scratched after finishing a dull sixth in the River City, said trainer Carlo Vaccarezza.
A pair of $120,000 maiden-special sprints surround the nominal feature as races 8 and 10, with all of them to be run under the Churchill lights amid frigid temperatures. Daytime highs through this weekend will top out in the mid-30s, with a return to the 50s not coming until early next week, according to local forecasts.
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