Injunction may have found his level in Cowboy Jones

Carlo Vaccarezza believes Injunction is sitting on a big race and might well prove as good as any in a competitive first running of the Cowboy Jones, a $70,000 overnight stakes that anchors an eight-race Saturday card at Ellis Park.

“I really do like him,” Vaccarezza said this week by phone from his Lexington, Ky., base while his son Nick oversees the day-to-day care of Injunction at Ellis in Henderson, Ky. “He’s training very well and he always tries.”

Injunction, with Rafael Bejarano riding from post 1, will be looking to save ground from the first jumps of the Cowboy Jones, which goes as a one-mile race out of the “elbow” clubhouse chute on the main track. He’s pegged at 12-1 on the Ellis morning line and faces nine other older horses, including tepid favorites Title Ready (post 2, Corey Lanerie), Last Samurai (post 7, Jon Court), and Night Ops (post 6, Joe Talamo).

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Injunction began his year being pitted to no avail against the likes of Speaker’s Corner and Fearless in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Mile, but since then, the 4-year-old gelding has been productive in four subsequent tries, including a runner-up finish in the Knicks Go and a victory in a second-level allowance, both at the Churchill Downs spring meet.

Title Ready is a lukewarm 3-1 choice exiting a pair of decent efforts as a longshot in the Grade 2 Alysheba and Grade 2 Stephen Foster at Churchill. The 7-year-old horse seems a vulnerable favorite seeking his first win since January 2021.

The Saturday feature honors the memory of Robert A. “Cowboy” Jones, the retired jockey who died in April at age 79. Jones was a legend on the smaller tracks of Kentucky, Ellis and the old Miles Park, riding his first winner in 1959 and his last at Turfway Park in 2004. He was immensely popular in and around his hometown of Henderson.

Half of the Cowboy Jones purse includes bonuses from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, for which all 10 starters are eligible.

First post is 12:50 p.m. Central, with the feature going as race 7 (3:40). Three allowances (races 4, 6, and 8) and three maiden-specials (races 2, 3, and 5) help fill out another excellent card.

Stakes dates up ahead

Four turf stakes worth $100,000 will be run Sunday at Ellis, all of them designed as preps toward the Sept. 1-14 Kentucky Downs meet. They are the Evan Williams and Centennial Distaff, both at a mile, and the Twin Spires and Laguna Distaff, both at 5 1/2 furlongs.

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The signature events of the 23-day summer meet are set for next Sunday, Aug. 14, when the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby and $125,000 Groupie Doll highlight an afternoon of five stakes, all on the main track.