Imprimis enters Turf Monster with ambitious autumn plans

When owners Mike Hall and Sam Ross and trainer Joe Orseno purchased Imprimis in March, they thought they were getting a horse who would fit well in the Florida-bred program. Instead, they got a whole lot more.

If Imprimis runs according to expectations Monday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Turf Monster at Parx Racing, his next start likely will come in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs on Nov. 3. A Breeders’ Cup appearance would be the first for Orseno since 2002.

In 2000, Orseno won races 7 and 8 on the Breeders’ Cup card, which coincidentally also was held at Churchill, taking down the Filly and Mare Turf with Perfect Sting and the Juvenile with Macho Uno. That same year, he won the Preakness with Red Bullet.

“It would really be something to go back to the Breeders’ Cup,” Orseno said. “The plan is to run at Parx and, if everything goes well, to train him up to the Turf Sprint, which I am very comfortable doing.”

Imprimis, a 4-year-old gelding by Broken Vow, won his first two career starts in February at Gulfstream Park for owner and breeder Craig Wheeler. Hall, Ross, and Orseno were at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March auction when Hall and Wheeler, who knew each other, began talking. Wheeler said he was in the process of selling Imprimis and would be sending him to California.

“Mike asked what I thought,” said Orseno, who has 35 horses stabled in the Sunshine State and another eight at Monmouth Park. “I said, ‘For Florida, he is a standout.’ We put a number on him, and it was the right one.”

Imprimis won an optional-claiming race at Gulfstream in his first start for his new connections, and Orseno then sent him north for the Jim McKay Turf Sprint at Pimlico. Imprimis stayed undefeated while winning by 5 1/4 lengths over a soft, saturated course on May 18.

Orseno ran him next in the Grade 1 Highlander at Woodbine, a Win and You’re In for the BC Turf Sprint, but Imprimis was sawed off trying to come up the rail in the stretch and finished sixth. In his most recent start, he won the Wolf Hill Stakes at Monmouth Park from post 10 in an 11-horse field.

“The horse is training fantastic for Parx, and we have post 8 of 8, which I love,” Orseno said.

Pure Sensation and Rainbow Heir are top contenders in the five-furlong Turf Monster.

Rainbow Heir will be making his first start since winning the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint in January and then standing at stud in Ocala, Fla., for a $3,500 fee. The 8-year-old New Jersey-bred has worked four times at Monmouth for trainer Jason Servis.

Pure Sensation, 7, won the Turf Monster in 2015 and 2017. He finished third in the Parx Dash in July and is 4 for 5 over the Parx course.

The field also includes Vision Perfect and Pool Winner, who finished first and second in the Parx Dash – separated by a nose – and Bucchero, whom Tim Glyshaw sends in from Kentucky for his first start since finishing fifth of 14 in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Greenwood Cup loaded

The holiday card at Parx also includes the Grade 3, $200,000 Greenwood Cup, a 1 1/2-mile main-track race that includes Grade 2 Brooklyn and Grade 2 Charles Town Classic runner-up War Story and the top three finishers from the 1 3/4-mile Birdstone at Saratoga.

War Story, trained by Jorge Navarro, narrowly missed in the Charles Town Classic and then held the lead at the eighth pole of the 1 1/2-mile Brooklyn before being run down by Hoppertunity. He has since finished 10th in the Grade 2 Suburban but has had almost two months to recover from that race.

Hard Study, who races for Todd Pletcher, finished third in the Brooklyn and was sent off at 1-5 in the Birdstone. He finished second by a length to the Ian Wilkes-trained Big Dollar Bill, who seized the lead in upper stretch and held on gamely.

Archanova, also trained by Wilkes, outran his 11-1 odds in the Birdstone and finished third, a nose behind Hard Study.

The field also includes 8-year-old Hawaakom, who upset the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback at Oaklawn Park for trainer Wes Hawley in February. Hawaakom finished second to Scuba in the 2016 Greenwood Cup and was fifth to Madefromlucky last year.