Meet ends on high note with three stakes

FRANKLIN, Ky. – The curtain falls Wednesday on another successful meet at Kentucky Downs, but not before three more high-dollar stakes are run on a 12-race card expected to be held amid perfect late-summer weather.

The closing-day features are the $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile for 2-year-olds, the $400,000 Gun Runner for 3-year-olds, and the $400,000 One Dreamer, a restricted race for fillies and mares. They’ll be run consecutively as races 9 through 11, with first post set for 12:25 p.m. Central.

A busy undercard filled with races offering the exorbitant purses fans have come to expect at this turf-only boutique meet includes the Tight Spot (race 5), a $180,000 overnight handicap for 3-year-olds and up. Two of the would-be favorites, Field Pass and Kentucky Ghost, can be expected to scratch after running here Saturday in the Mint Million.

All listed purses include sizable bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.

This is the last of seven cards at a meet that began Sept. 1. A Tuesday makeup card consisting of the last nine races originally scheduled for Sunday prior to being washed out was to precede the Wednesday finale. Churchill Downs begins a 14-day, dirt-only meet Thursday with an eight-race twilight card. Keeneland starts its fall meet Oct. 7.

Juvenile Mile

This one-mile race was rained out Sept. 3 but retains its redrawn core of favorites, led by Really Good, a sharp winner of a two-turn turf maiden race at Saratoga that graded out to a 72 Beyer Speed Figure, highest in this lineup of 10 2-year-olds.

Really Good, owned by a three-way partnership, already was named when he was purchased.

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“We were hoping the name was a tip-off,” said his trainer, Mike Maker.

Tyler Gaffalione, the meet’s leading jockey with nine wins through the weekend, will be aboard Really Good from post 2. Two other last-out maiden winners are the top threats, those being Mayfield Strong (post 1, Corey Lanerie) and and Castleknock (post 5, Gerardo Corrales).

Seven of an original lineup of nine from the Sept. 3 field are back; dropouts were Bramble Breeze and Anglophile, with the new names being King Ice, Reckoning Force, and Mikey Bananas. Of those, Reckoning Force (post 8, Joel Rosario) figures to draw the most interest, even as a maiden, mostly because he will have the ever-popular Rosario aboard when being sent forth by Joseph O’Brien, the Irish-born trainer with a glowing reputation.

A second Maker trainee, Bourbon Therapy (post 6, Ricardo Santana Jr.), actually had a race here in the interim, finishing fourth of five last Thursday in the Juvenile Sprint.

Gun Runner

Jimmy DiVito can only hope that American Mayhem will like Kentucky Downs as much as the colt liked Ellis Park. After three losses at Churchill to open his career, American Mayhem suddenly blossomed in knocking out maiden and allowance races over the Ellis turf.

“Probably some tougher horses this time,” said DiVito, “but the way he moves over the grass, the way he accelerates, he sure seems like a nice grass horse. We’ll step up to the plate in this one and see how he matches up.”

American Mayhem, with Gabriel Saez back riding, is part of a well-matched group of lukewarm favorites in the one-mile Gun Runner, which got 14 entries, two more than the maximum. Play Action Pass (post 4, Jose Lezcano) also was a dominant last-out winner at Ellis, while Castle Leoch (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.) is back from Del Mar for Wesley Ward and Fuerteventura (post 6, Gaffalione) is in from Monmouth Park by way of Saratoga for Jonathan Thomas.

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Stitched is a 7-2 morning-line choice but can be expected to scratch after finishing fifth Saturday at 20-1 in the Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson.

The Gun Runner is named for the 2017 Horse of the Year co-owned by Ron Winchell, co-owner of Kentucky Downs.

One Dreamer

With the U.S. Open tennis championships concluded last weekend, now would be a good time for Navratilova to make some racket. A two-time stakes winner last year at 3, including the Grade 3 Valley View at Keeneland in October, the G. Watts Humphrey homebred fits well under the “never won a stakes in 2022” clause governing this mile and 70-yard race.

“Her best races have been at a mile and a mile and a sixteenth,” said her trainer, Rusty Arnold, referring to a filly – she was produced by Grade 1 winner Centre Court – named for the legendary Martina Navratilova. “She’s come back training good off a disappointing race at Indiana,” referring to a fifth-place finish in July at Horseshoe Indianapolis, “but this looks like a good spot.”

Navratilova will break from post 8 when ridden by Martin Garcia. Thirteen are entered, but only as many as 12 can start, with the Godolphin homebred Alms (post 7, Jose Ortiz) being among the top challengers when looking to snap a 2 1/2-year losing skein.