Medoro freshened, working bullets for Sunkissed Stakes
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With a win, a place, and a close third in Grade 1 competition, Medoro’s move from California to Louisiana and Kentucky has gone nearly as well as connections could have hoped, and she stands a strong chance of capturing the $250,000 Sunkissed Stakes on Sunday at Ellis Park.
Trainer Peter Eurton has freshened Medoro since she finished fifth, beaten 1 3/4 lengths, in the Grade 3 Mint Julep on May 30. It wasn’t a bad race, and Eurton thinks he knows why his horse didn’t run better, and not as good as her close third in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley in April. Her batteries recharged, and with three bullet works during July at Ellis, Medoro stands as the most likely winner of the Sunkissed, a 1 1/16-mile grass race for older fillies and mares.
Weekend weather at Ellis is sketchy, and things could turn wet, but while Medoro never has raced on dirt, don’t assume she comes out if the Sunkissed comes off. “I’ve always been curious, because she trains so well on dirt, and she’s so tactical,” Eurton said.
Fourteen were entered in the Sunkissed, a dozen in the field’s main body, but there will be scratches. Buttercream Babe runs Saturday in an Ellis turf sprint unless that race gets rained onto dirt, said trainer Rusty Arnold, who has two others, Love You Anyway and key win contender In the Stars, set to race, though only on grass. The Bill Mott stable has two entrants, Wind Flower for turf and Roswell for dirt.
Five-year-old Medoro, who campaigns for the C R K Stable, has rated just below top class since 2024, and her third Grade 1 placing, in the Jenny Wiley, marked her career zenith. Eurton believes that he got the tactics wrong in the Mint Julep by anticipating a faster pace, which led to Medoro pulling too hard when the tempo unfolded more slowly.
“She’s a horse who can get aggressive,” Eurton said.
Scratches will aid In the Stars, who drew post 12 but figures to move in a few slots. Arnold won’t run In the Stars on dirt despite the fact the 4-year-old filly made four of her first five starts on the main track. In the Stars is by Into Mischief, known more for dirt performers than turf, and out of Stellar Wind, a star dirt mare during her racing days. Yet it was a switch to full-time grass racing that turned In the Stars into a stakes horse.
“I was convinced she was a dirt horse,” Arnold said. “Why she is a turf horse, I don’t know.”
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In the Stars, Arnold said, probably had gone a little over the top when she checked in seventh making her stakes debut in the Mrs. Revere last November, and she has returned a stronger horse this season, landing her first stakes race with an authoritative score last month in Indiana.
Water Tower
Blackmail drops in class from the Grade 1 Belmont Derby and starts Sunday at Ellis in the $250,000 Water Tower but might be running into a quietly formidable opponent named Black Hornet.
Seven others went into the Water Tower, restricted to 3-year-olds and carded for 1 1/8 miles on grass, but Street Beast is a more likely runner Saturday at Colonial Downs, according to trainer Ben Colebrook.
Blackmail finished eighth in the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Derby but did not at all run poorly. Lacking gate speed, he dropped toward the tail of the field and found himself caught behind a slow pace. Blackmail turned in one of the race’s faster final furlongs but had no chance to win from his position at the head of the homestretch, though he did gallop out in front, looking like a horse who could suit even more distance.
Black Hornet, Tyler Gaffalione in to ride for trainer Brendan Walsh, hasn’t raced since May 2, when he threw a clunker in the Grade 1 American Turf. That start came after Black Hornet flopped while making his synthetic debut in the $1 million Jeff Ruby at Turfway, but if the horse runs back to his winter Fair Grounds form, he can win. He overcame trouble to clear the maiden ranks in a Feb. 5 turf route and returned 23 days later to annex a fairly salty renewal of the Black Gold.
Brave Force, a tepid third in the American Derby, and last-start allowance winer Fancy Sailor are the two others to consider.
Pucker Up
East Jabip figures to be favored in the $250,000 Pucker Up for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/8 miles, but trainer Brad Cox has two chances to beat her, and both Embrace Time and Infinite Sky could come up live.
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They exit the same July 5 first-level Ellis allowance, which ended with Embrace Time coming out on top and Infinite Sky on the bottom of a three-horse blanket finish.
Embrace Time very much needed a May 7 long-layoff race, Cox said, and the start gave her a recency edge on Infinite Sky, who hadn’t been out since splitting the field last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Infinite Sky made a somewhat early move that forced her into a longer run than her fitness could handle, Cox said. The pair, both by Not this Time, are hard to separate, and not just on form.
“They’re by the same stallion and really even kind of look alike,” Cox said.
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