McPeek tired but happy after huge weekend
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kenny McPeek was extremely tired, but not of the winning.
“It’s not just all the training and racing and running up and down I-64 all the time, but the sale was this week, too,” said McPeek, referring to the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale held Oct. 25-28 in Lexington, Ky. “I can’t help myself. I’ve got to be involved.”
His work from prior sales sure did pay off handsomely during the latest three-day weekend on the Kentucky racing circuit. McPeek had two winners on both the Friday and Saturday cards at Keeneland, then two more on the Stars of Tomorrow opener Sunday at Churchill Downs. Most notable were stakes triumphs by Camp Hope in the Bryan Station on the Keeneland turf and by Sandstone in the Rags to Riches at dirt-only Churchill, along with an eye-catching score by a first-timing 2-year-old, Smile Happy, in a two-turn maiden race on the Keeneland main track.
“Great weekend,” he said.
McPeek came forth with the news Sunday afternoon that he would not be shipping Rattle N Roll to Del Mar for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Rattle N Roll, winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity on opening weekend at Keeneland, has a minor foot bruise, or perhaps a developing abscess, in a hind foot. It’s a routine kind of thing that will not affect the colt’s long-term outlook, and for that McPeek is glad.
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“I wasn’t all that keen on taking him to the Breeders’ Cup anyway,” he said. “This is the kind of colt that could really make some noise next year. We’ll give this all the time it needs and go from there.”
McPeek said King Fury, third in the Fayette, might face 3-year-olds next in the Nov. 27 Discovery at Aqueduct instead of facing older rivals in the Grade 1 Clark here Nov. 26. Camp Hope goes next in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby on Nov. 27 at Del Mar and Sandstone advances to the Grade 2 Golden Rod here Nov. 27, the same day Smile Happy will jump right into stakes company in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club.
Allowance co-features
A field of six is entered in the richest of 10 Thursday races at Churchill, a $134,000 second-level allowance at six furlongs. Cowan, with Brian Hernandez Jr. riding for Steve Asmussen, is the 7-5 morning-line choice as he goes for his second win in as many starts since returning from Dubai.
The second allowance on the card, which starts at 1 p.m. Eastern, goes as race 9, with Palm Cottage and Mariah’s Princess among the prime contenders in a field of eight fillies and mares going seven furlongs for a maximum purse of $127,000.
The only Churchill stakes this coming weekend is the $300,000 Bet On Sunshine on Saturday. All Friday and Saturday races are scheduled to accommodate the Breeders’ Cup simulcasts from Del Mar.