Mr. Wireless set to regain winning ways

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mr. Wireless is more old-school than high-tech. The hard-knocking 4-year-old has no hidden gimmicks and a free-running style that has served him very well, as evidenced by the $766,067 bankroll he has amassed from just 11 starts.

Trained by Bret Calhoun for Jon Lapczenski and JIL Stable, Mr. Wireless looks like the class of the field in race 8, the second of back-to-back allowances that anchor a nine-race Friday card at Churchill Downs.

Seven older horses are entered in the eighth race, a $148,000 one-mile allowance with a four-other-than restriction and other custom conditions. Mr. Wireless, a three-time stakes winner, barely makes the cut on a date/earnings clause that’s in play, having earned $58,800 (just below a $60,000 threshold) in winning the Schaefer Memorial on July 9 at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

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Since the Schaefer, Mr. Wireless has raced twice, finishing fourth in the Fort Larned on the Aug. 13 Arlington Million one-off at Churchill, then third last month in a Keeneland allowance in his grass debut. In the Fort Larned, “he didn’t get out of the gate very well and got caught behind horses on a slow pace,” Calhoun said earlier this week from New Orleans while making preparations for the upcoming Fair Grounds meet.

“That race was disappointing,” he said, “but it was a matter of circumstances. Then after a Churchill race for him didn’t fill, we gave him a try on the grass at Keeneland, and I thought he ran pretty well. Now we’re set up here with the turf-to-dirt angle, and without a lot of other speed in there, hopefully we can get the right kind of trip and get back to the winner’s circle.”

DeShawn Parker, back again from Indianapolis, retains the mount on Mr. Wireless, who will break from post 3 in the one-turn mile out of the Longfield Avenue chute. Five Star General (post 5, Corey Lanerie) looks like the horse to catch after going wire to wire in a Keeneland allowance last month, although Here Mi Song (post 1, Edgar Morales) might challenge early exiting shorter races.

Race 7 is a $134,000 second-level race at five furlongs on the main track. Air Combat, Edge to Edge, and Francatelli look like the principal contenders in a field of seven 3-year-olds and up.

A $120,000 maiden-special (race 9) at 1 1/8 miles concludes the program. It’s scheduled as the only turf race of the day, although an 80 percent rain chance might force it to the main track. A full field of 10 is entered.

First post all week is 1 p.m. Eastern. All listed purses include bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.

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