Mountain Bear may benefit from calmer setting
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Mountain Bear has been his own worst enemy at times, but despite some pre-race antics, his two trips to the United States have resulted in placings in Grade 1 races. Now based in the U.S. for new connections, Mountain Bear faces softer company, and perhaps an easier atmosphere, in Sunday’s ninth race at Churchill Downs.
The $134,000 allowance race on turf is for 3-year-olds and up who have never won twice other-than, who have never won three races, or those entered for an $80,000 claiming tag.
Mountain Bear finished a strong second in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for Aidan O’Brien, despite suffering an injury. He emerged from the race with a non-displaced condylar fracture in a foreleg.
After a surgical repair, Mountain Bear raced last summer in Ireland, where he was group stakes-placed. He returned to the U.S. for the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland last October. He was extremely fractious pre-race, dropping rider Chris Hayes. Once reunited, he reared multiple times on the track, at one point precariously balancing on one leg. Hayes speculated that the antics were due to the pre-race protocols being different in the U.S. than overseas, where horses may be able to leave the paddock early.
Mountain Bear confirmed his class by still having enough in the tank to close for third in the Turf Mile, beaten by the classy Carl Spackler and subsequent Breeders’ Cup Mile winner More Than Looks.
After being sold at the Tattersalls autumn horses of racing age sale, Mountain Bear is now based with Wesley Ward, who has a keen understanding of European-type horses from years of raids on Royal Ascot and other major events. Mountain Bear has breezed several times with Ward’s Arrest Me Red, a multiple graded stakes winner.
While Mountain Bear’s U.S. races have come on major days, he will be running before a smaller, more settled crowd on a stakes-free Sunday program. Although aspects of Churchill’s infrastructure and audio system can be intimidating, the paddock design allows plenty of room for horses to be in constant motion pre-race, which should help Mountain Bear remain settled. He will hope for pace to develop in a full field of 12, in which he has drawn the extreme outside.
Tut’s Revenge won the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Mile last summer on the lead at Ellis Park and appears the most likely candidate to take initiative here. Longshots Liar’s Poker, drawn on the rail, and Santorini could also add speed.
Ak Sar Ben Derby will be getting class relief, and would also benefit from a strong pace. After winning the Hawthorne Derby last October, he was a closing third in the Grade 3 Commonwealth Turf in November at Churchill.
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