Lynch runs three in Preview Turf Cup as prep for Kentucky Downs
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Aidan O’Brien does it all the time in Ireland and England. Chad Brown does it too, especially in older filly and mare turf route stakes. But trainer Brian Lynch? It’s not at all standard for him to run three horses in the same stakes race, but he will on Sunday at Ellis Park when Anglophile, Dashman, and Highway Robber all start in the $300,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup.
“That’s a first for me,” Lynch said. “It’ll be a good prep for Kentucky Downs.”
That’s the idea, as the race name suggests: A stepping-stone toward the $2.5 million Kentucky Downs Turf Cup on Sept. 6. Lynch hopes to get all three of these horses into the absurdly lucrative Kentucky Downs program.
It has worked in the past for the trio. In 2023, Anglophile finished third – just behind Highway Robber – in the Ellis preview race for the Dueling Grounds Derby and went on to capture that $1 million contest. Last summer, Highway Robber won this race and went on to finish second, beaten a half-length by Grand Sonata, in the Kentucky Downs Turf Cup. In July 2024, Dashman won an Ellis turf maiden and six weeks later landed a $200,000 first-level allowance at Kentucky Downs.
Dashman ended his 3-year-old campaign last November with a tepid seventh in the Commonwealth Turf at Churchill Downs, but in January, facing older rivals for the first time, he scored a narrow victory in the Grade 3 William McKnight at Gulfstream Park. After hitting that peak, the colt went to the sidelines, and he races Sunday for the first time since the McKnight.
“He’s got a good foundation in him. He’s ready to run, and it’ll be a real good prep race to Kentucky Downs,” Lynch said.
Anglophile has lost 11 in a row since his Dueling Grounds Derby success, and should he lose again Sunday, he’d be eligible to the restricted Tapit Stakes at Kentucky Downs. That would require turning back to a distance short of Anglophile’s best, but other options exist at the short meet.
Highway Robber merits his 9-5 morning-line favoritism on Sunday. He’s winless in three 2025 races but only now gets into the heart of his campaign. Owners Jim and Susan Hill made the unusual choice to send Highway Robber to English trainer Charlie Hills in Dubai late this winter. Highway Robber finished a distant seventh March 1 in the Dubai City of Gold and beat a retreat back to Lynch in America. A good third in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill, a nine-furlong contest short of his best, Highway Robber went to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Manhattan but, Lynch said, caught his foot in his stall webbing, forcing a scratch. Highway Robber walked four or five days, returned to Kentucky, and finished second in the Chorleywood Stakes on June 14.
“It wasn’t ideal. It was a race just to keep him ticking over,” Lynch said.
Multitask holds some longshot appeal stretching out to 1 1/4 miles while making his stakes debut following a pair of turf allowance wins. But it’s Lynch who holds all the cards.
Preview Turf Sprint
Nobals, a Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner with $1.5 million in career earnings, gets top billing in the $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint, but Nobals, a very fast horse, finds himself in a race top-heavy with pace players.
Nobals brings a 121 TimeformUS early pace figure to the 5 1/2-furlong prep for the $2 million Turf Sprint on Aug. 30 at Kentucky Downs. That gives him no edge whatsoever on Coppola, who has a 124 early pace number, Joe Shiesty, who’s at 130, and Go Captain, a 125. Coppola has to gun from his rail draw, while yet another speed horse, Bear River (113), should come zooming over from his far outside post to try and establish position.
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Now, Nobals has at times shown an ability to stalk and pounce in turf sprints, though those tactics haven’t yielded a win in the better part of two years. Moreover, Nobals was supposed to race this past Sunday at Hawthorne before rain washed away the turf sprint in which he was entered.
The 6-year-old gelding looked good beating Churchill turf-sprint allowance foes in May, but finished second July 4 as the 1-2 favorite in a Presque Isle Downs Tapeta sprint.
Truly, this race should fall apart, right into the lap of a closer. Charcoal, who chased home loose leader Coppola last out in Indiana, rallied from fifth to win this race a year ago. More appealing, at 15-1 on the morning line, is Mo Stash. A fast-closing third in this race a year ago, Mo Stash hasn’t started since December, but the horse always has run well fresh, including in his career debut three summers ago, when he won an Ellis Park turf sprint maiden.
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