King Snake one to beat in Prairie Meadows Juvenile

It’s early in the year for 2-year-olds to be running two-turn dirt races, but that’s the whole reason King Snake has been entered in the $65,000 Prairie Meadows Juvenile on Friday night.

Whether the colt runs in Iowa or New York wasn’t entirely certain Wednesday, when King Snake also was entered in the Aug. 10 Saratoga Special. Jack Sisterson, who trains King Snake for Calumet Farm, suggested Tuesday that connections might be leaning toward a start in Iowa, mainly because the race is a route.

“The thought would be to run him there and then point him directly to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity” over 1 1/16 miles on dirt at Keeneland in October, Sisterson said.

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Keeneland is the home track for Sisterson, who has been training for Calumet for a little more than a year. Calumet is just down the road from the racetrack.

King Snake already has hit the road once, shipping with Sisterson’s stakes entrants on the July 13 Arlington Million preview card. The barn’s high regard for the first-time starter got so much buzz that even Arlington-based racetrackers were talking up the Keeneland-based colt the day of the race, and King Snake went postward at odds of 2-1, breaking from the rail while facing 11 horses in a Polytrack sprint.

King Snake ran a winning race, too, leading and surging to a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call before a lack of focus – perhaps equine, perhaps human – interrupted the victory parade. A second-time starter named Peruvian Boy came out of the blue and tagged King Snake at the wire, but even in defeat the colt had displayed clear talent. King Snake, a homebred by Elusive Quality out of Padmore, got a 79 Beyer Speed Figure and should be heavily favored against just four foes in the one mile and 70-yard Prairie Meadows Juvenile.

The fact he’s still a maiden won’t deter bettors since only Hombrazo and Southate among this quintet have visited the winner’s circle. Two others, Prismatic and the Canterbury-based Talkin Malice, are set to make their career debut in this stakes race.