King's review: Swept Up shows stakes potential

Heavy overnight rains resulted in the three scheduled turf races Saturday at Churchill Downs being moved to a wet main track. Then, as the afternoon went on, more downpours hit the track.

Trainers Steve Margolis and Brad Cox each won a pair of races on the 10-race card, with Margolis scoring victories in the second race with Ocean Bertie and in the eighth with Swept Up. Cox took the opener with Crooked as Can Be and the third with Magical Moment.

Both wins for Margolis came for his longtime clients, Richard and Bertram Klein, who have a breed-to-race program.

Swept Up, a first-out winner in race 8, is out of one of their finest mares, graded stakes winner Swept Away, who has already dropped a couple stakes-winning sprinters in Cash Refund and Early Return.

Swept Up seems to have stakes potential, too – judging by the way she ran. She took command from just off the early pace and gamely turned away Unbridledexplosion, who had seemed in position to run her down in the lane. The winner ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.18, earning a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.

As for Cox and his runners, he continues to show he is among the finest claiming trainers on this circuit. Magical Moment won for him in his first start off the claim, and a couple races earlier, Crooked as Can Be dominated in a starter $5,000 race.

Crooked as Can Be was another Cox claim, a horse he took for $7,500 in January at Oaklawn who has now won 3 of 4 in starter allowance races since joining his stable.

The featured Unbridled Sydney, moved from turf to a sloppy main track, was won by the hard-knocking veteran Sweet Cassiopeia, who pulled away from Point to the Wild in the final furlong to win by 1 1/4 lengths.

Ridden by Joe Rocco Jr., she was timed in 57.58 seconds, receiving a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, and her victory gave trainer Bill Connelly his first stakes win at Churchill Downs.

Connelly said the May 26 Winning Colors, a Grade 3 at Churchill going six furlongs, could be next for her.

Horse to Watch

Corso’s Law
Trainer: Brad Cox
Last race: May 10, 3rd
Finish: 2nd by 1
Beyer: 73

He set the pace in a $10,000 claimer and never gave up when passed by the winner in mid-stretch, finishing 9 1/2 lengths ahead of the third-place finisher. He was claimed out of the race by Cox and could develop into a nice starter $10,000 horse.