Kentucky Outlaw needs clean break shortening up in President's Sprint
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Trainer Felissa Dunn wasn’t sure about sending Kentucky Outlaw to the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes last month. She’s also not sure about cutting back to 6 1/2 furlongs in the PTHA President’s Sprint Stakes at Parx Racing on Monday either, but the 3-year-old colt should have a strong chance with a clean break.
“He’s not that good of a horse for the Haskell,” Dunn said. “I think it was a waste. I hope he’ll do better, but there are some tough horses in this race too.”
Before he finished seventh in the Haskell at 53-1 odds last time out, Kentucky Outlaw had been making great strides in his 3-year-old campaign. He earned his first stakes victory at Monmouth in May in the $100,000 Long Branch and finished third behind Admiral Dennis and Barbadian Runner in the $200,000 Delaware Derby the following month.
After four straight trips out of Pennsylvania, Dunn will finally keep her colt at Parx for a stakes attempt. He is undefeated at his home track, having won the first two races of his career there by a combined 13 1/2 lengths.
Kentucky Outlaw may be a natural front-runner, but the colt’s severe struggles out of the gate have been a consistent issue that have cost him dearly in several starts.
“I don’t know,” Dunn said. “With him not breaking well, it puts him at a disadvantage.”
Dunn said she was especially concerned about a slow start at a sprint distance. She wanted to enter him in the $200,000 Smarty Jones at one mile and 70 yards at Parx on Tuesday, but Tip Top Thomas and trainer Todd Pletcher would have made things difficult for her colt in that spot.
Forced into a 6 1/2-furlong sprint, Dunn must now trust jockey Kendrick Carmouche, who has had more success than anyone getting Kentucky Outlaw going. The jockey has not yet been able to ride him in the afternoon due to commitments in New York, but in a gate exercise earlier this year, he got him out in what Dunn described as a flawless break, the only time she has ever seen it.
“That was by himself,” Dunn said. “That’s different than with a group of horses. If other horses are breaking with him, he sort of stops and watches them break and then comes out. But he still was never too good by himself except the day Kendrick came.”
The field of 13 in the PTHA President’s Sprint does not feature as much early speed as a group that large might suggest. Even if longshots like Marvelous Mo, Holy Synergy, and Friday Surprise go to the front, Kentucky Outlaw has proven capable of rating just off the pace, which should come in handy as other contenders seem poised to make a similar move.
Retribution, a colt trained by Cherie DeVaux, will ship to Parx in search of a bounce-back victory after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the $250,000 Maxfield at Churchill Downs. The colt improved to win the $150,000 Chick Lang in his stakes debut at Pimlico in May from the far outside. He drew the 12 post on Monday.
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