Our Shot takes advantage of hot pace in Woodford Stakes
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Our Shot may have earned his shot at the Breeders’ Cup by surging clear in the stretch for a 1 3/4-length win over a salty field in the Grade 2, $350,000 Woodford Stakes for turf sprinters Saturday at Keeneland.
The Woodford does not award an automatic Breeders’ Cup berth to its winner, but it has regularly produced starters for the Turf Sprint, set to be contested Nov. 2 at Del Mar. Trainer John Terranova, who co-owns Our Shot ($13.66) with Gatsas Stables and Steven Schoenfeld, said moving on to the BC Turf Sprint will be discussed.
“These turf sprinters, they tend to get better with age and with some seasoning,” Terranova said of the 5-year-old gelding. “He was coming into this race doing really well. We saw a little something extra in him this week – his attitude, just his whole mental attitude and everything since he got here – so were pretty confident he was going to run a good race, hoping it set up well and he got a good trip.”
Ron Dowdy, owner of runner-up Charcoal, said that gelding also will be under consideration to ship to Del Mar.
The Woodford was Our Shot’s first win since July 2023, but he had placed in multiple stakes in the interim, including a rally that missed by just a head to Big Invasion in the Harvey Pack Stakes on Sept. 2 at Saratoga.
“We had a lot of trouble [in the Harvey Pack], but we couldn’t wait to be here today and were pretty comfortable that he was going to do a pretty good race,” said jockey Luis Saez, who rode his third winner of the day in the first of five straight stakes on the program.
On Saturday, a hot pace set Our Shot up for a strong run. Coppola, after pressing the pace set by Souper Quest, who emerged from a scramble to fire off the first quarter in 21.35 seconds, put a head in front of the leader into the stretch. Those two were two lengths clear of 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals in third, with Our Shot fourth and five wide. Finding his best stride in the final eighth, he surged clear late for the win, stopping the clock in 1:02.36 for the 5 1/2 furlongs on the firm course.
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Charcoal, who had been fifth in deep stretch, held off fellow late-runner Arzak, the defending winner of the race, to claim the place spot by a neck in a blanket finish for the minor awards. Arzak was a nose in front of Coppola, a pace horse who kept digging in. Nobals and stablemate One Timer finished another neck back in a dead heat for fifth, with Nobals remaining winless this year.
They were followed, in order, by Xy Speed, Souper Quest, Let My People Go, No Nay Hudson, Foxtrotanna, and Gear Jockey.
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