Lukas Classic likely next start for Rich Strike

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rich Strike could make his next start in the Oct. 1 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs as a prep for either the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland or the Nov. 25 Clark at Churchill, trainer Eric Reed said this week.

“It’s probably where we’ll go unless something dramatic happens,” said Reed.

Rich Strike, the 80-1 winner of the Kentucky Derby in May for the RED TR-Racing of Rick Dawson, most recently was fourth, beaten just a neck for second, behind Epicenter in the Aug. 27 Travers at Saratoga. Reed said Thursday the Keen Ice colt could have his first post-Travers breeze at his Mercury training center in Lexington “in the next two to four days. Then we’d work him again somewhere around the 20th or 21st [of September]) to set us up for the Lukas.

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“He came out of the Travers about as good as I’ve ever seen him. He’s grown up a lot over the summer, he really has.”

Reed said whatever respect Rich Strike may have earned with a creditable Travers effort that graded out to a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure “probably will have to be earned again. Hopefully people at least know he’s a legitimate contender whenever we lead him over.”

The Grade 2, $400,000 Lukas Classic will be run at 1 1/8 miles. The Breeders’ Cup Classic goes at the same 1 1/4-mile distance as the Derby, and the Grade 1 Clark is 1 1/8 miles.

Meanwhile, Reed has been self-quarantining at his home in Versailles, Ky., in recent days after testing positive for a second time for COVID. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Reed was hospitalized with the virus for nearly two weeks.

“It’s not the bad-bad stuff,” he said. “It’s like a breeze compared to what I had last time. I’m not nearly as sick.”