Kip Berries may improve second time back in Isaac Murphy
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Kip Berries is the defending champion in the $100,000 Isaac Murphy Handicap, a six-furlong Polytrack race for Illinois-bred females at Arlington. Her lone start since that victory produced a distant sixth-place finish here last month, but Kip Berries is eligible to rebound Saturday.
Her residency in the Tom Swearingen stable doesn’t hurt. Swearingen has won Illinois-bred stakes races the last two weekends, capturing the Springfield with I Got It All and the Purple Violet with Countess Cashmere.
Swearingen hoped to return the 8-year-old Kip Berries to the races this year in a five-furlong turf sprint, but when such a spot didn’t come up, Kip Berries started in a six-furlong Polytrack allowance against open competition.
“She ran about five furlongs and got tired,” Swearingen said of the comeback run.
Moreover, Kip Berries failed to make the lead May 18, and bad things happen when Kip Berries doesn’t get to the front. The mare has that kind of personality: When things don’t go her way, she won’t put forth her best effort.
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“She wants to do things the way she wants to do them,” Swearingen said.
Kip Berries has since gotten in two five-furlong workouts, and if she can find the front end, she can win her second straight Isaac Murphy.
“She’s getting some age on her, but hopefully this time out she has all she needs in her,” said Swearingen.
Stormin Elle looks better on turf than Polytrack and better at two-turn races than one but still rates a win chance in her second start of the year. Trainer Wayne Catalano raved about her June 8 half-mile Polytrack workout in 46.80 seconds.
“She worked like a monster,” Catalano said.
The problem is that Stormin Elle almost certainly will be bet below fair value.
The 6-year-old Algonquin Posse has won or placed in several Illinois-bred sprint stakes but hasn’t started since October and raced only four times in 2013. That said, she has posted a good-looking string of morning workouts, and trainer Scott Becker has a strong 24 percent strike rate with long-range comeback horses.
With Kip Berries going hard early and the rail-drawn Frabster likely joining Stormin Elle in the vanguard, a speed duel could percolate. Royal Posh in post 2 finished second in this race last year and might be in line for a very favorable trip stalking the battling front-runners.