Kid Rigo set for 100th start

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - After Thursday, Kid Rigo can get started on his next 100 races.

By running in the first race Thursday at Churchill, a $7,500 claiming event, 12-year-old Kid Rigo will join the century club. He enters the one-mile race with 99 starts, 26 wins, 13 seconds, 11 thirds, and earnings of just more than $300,000.

Bred in Virginia by the legendary Paul Mellon, Kid Rigo, by Summer Squall, began his career in November 2000 as a 2-year-old in Panama, where he was trained by Eric Gittens. After seven races, including one win, he returned to the United States, getting beat 36 lengths in the 2001 Jim Dandy at Saratoga for trainer Alfredo Callejas. Since then, he has raced at 24 different racetracks, with his most recent start coming May 7 at Fairmount Park for Leonard Ellis, his 17th trainer.

On Thursday, Kid Rigo will be run in the name of trainer Ron Baird, for whom the gelding raced during the winter of 2009-10. Victor Lebron has the mount.

Brass Hat tops Louisville Handicap

The lone stakes race this coming weekend at Churchill is the Grade 3, $100,000 Louisville Handicap on Saturday. Brass Hat, the defending champion in the 1 1/2-mile turf race, will be one of the main contenders. Entries were to be drawn Wednesday.

Besides 9-year-old Brass Hat, the Louisville Handicap field also is expected to include 10-year-old Silverfoot, who won the race three straight years (2004-06).

Thiskyhasnolimit shows maturity

Thiskyhasnolimit came out of his sharp victory in the Matt Winn Stakes last Saturday in good fashion, according to Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. Making his 3-year-old debut, Thiskyhasnolimit captured the Winn by three-quarters of a length over the Margolis-trained favorite, Cool Bullet.

Thiskyhasnolimit upset the Iroquois here last fall at 13-1 before finishing sixth as the favorite behind Super Saver in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and briefly going to the sidelines because "he was just a big, immature colt," Blasi said.

Thiskyhasnolimit earned a career-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure in taking the seven-furlong Winn.

* General Quarters, winner of the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the Derby undercard, had a breeze scheduled for Monday at Churchill postponed by owner-trainer Tom McCarthy because of inclement weather. The 4-year-old colt has the Aug. 21 Arlington Million as his long-term summer goal.