Jerardi: Patrioticandproud’s back class stands out in Louisville

This Saturday is the pause between the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, with no Grade 1 stakes anywhere but a few interesting stakes at several venues.

Patrioticandproud is an interesting test case for players in the Louisville Handicap, the 1 1/2-mile grass marathon at Churchill Downs. If you just look at recent form, you might not understand that Patrioticandproud is easily the most accomplished grass horse in the race, with the Beyer Speed Figures to back it up. His last two races came off the grass. He had no chance against Shared Belief in the Santa Anita Handicap. In his last race of 2014 and his first race of 2015, he was a close second to Finnegans Wake each time in California, with paired-up Beyers of 99.

Finnegans Wake, with five graded stakes wins in his last nine starts, including the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on Kentucky Derby Day, would be 3-5 in this race. So, if Patrioticandproud runs to the Beyer form he showed at Del Mar and Santa Anita, he will be difficult to beat.

Golden Soul has run 16 times since his second to Orb in the 2013 Kentucky Derby. He has won exactly twice, the only two times he ran over the Churchill grass course, with figures of 87 and 92. One of those wins was at 1 3/8 miles.

Xtra Luck ran a very strong second at Keeneland in a second-level allowance at this distance. His 88 and 90 Beyers stack up if Patrioticandproud does not duplicate his Southern California form.

The My Juliet Stakes at Parx is another test case, but for a different reason. Galiana, who won her maiden for $7,500 at Delaware Park in June 2013 and has since earned more than $500,000, just ran the two best races of her life, with Beyers of 93 and 91 while winning two Pimlico stakes. She won the Skipat the day before the Preakness, so she is trying to win this race on eight days’ rest. I have to think she is more likely to regress than go forward, so where to look?

She’s Ordained has run second to Galiana in both of those stakes, but she has the same quick-comeback issue.

Sweet Abandon has won seven times at Parx but never at this distance, nor does she have figures that stack up.

This is the classic case of wanting to bet against the favorite but having no clear alternative.

Zinvor looks like the right horse in the Snow Chief at Santa Anita, with solid Beyers of 84 and 85 in his first two starts as a 3-year-old. I would be a little more optimistic if the horse he just beat, Turn On the Pumps, had not come back to run fifth in an optional claimer. But the numbers look solid, and the horse certainly should get a decent stalking trip.

Richard’s Boy is perfect in two starts on grass, including a close win over Zinvor. Both of those races, however, were down the hill, and that is a very different race than this 1 1/8-mile journey.

Zinvor won at a flat mile on this course, so you know his form translated. Until Richard’s Boy does it, I would be less sure he will do it.

The rest don’t have much grass form or competitive grass Beyers.

The Tiznow Stakes certainly looks like it is all about Motown Men, with dominant Beyers and terrific form. He got a 103 when winning April 10 and a solid 97 when third in the May 2 Precisionist, just two lengths behind Catch a Flight, who was good enough to get a 105 when third behind Shared Belief in the Big Cap.

Motown Men took the big Beyer jump after being claimed by Ted West for $40,000. His last two races were against open company. This is against California-bred or California-sired horses. It is hard not to like everything about this horse in this spot.

Toledo Eddie was good enough to get a 101 Beyer a year ago at Santa Anita and obviously loves the track, with four wins in six starts there.

Magic Mark also has a triple-digit Beyer, that coming last June when he was right with the pace and kept going. He had a similar trip in the Precisionist before fading late to finish fifth, his first start in nine weeks.