Patriot Spirit ready to go in Reigh Count after small injury

Patriot Spirit, game runner-up in the $200,000 Knicks Go in May, will return from a layoff of nearly three months on Saturday at Colonial Downs. After taking time to treat a small splint, trainer Mike Campbell has entered the 4-year-old colt in the $100,000 Reigh Count Stakes, where he has been pegged as the 7-5 morning-line favorite.

“He’s a very driven horse, so it’s not like you have to encourage him,” Campbell said. “He’s happy to go and train everyday. He was never lame and it was possible to run him with that splint, but I didn’t feel like it was in the best interest of the horse.”

Though the colt has earned two stakes victories and more than $350,000 in his career, Campbell believes that bad luck has prevented him from achieving even more.

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After winning the $200,000 Illinois Derby in April 2024, Patriot Spirit had to miss nearly five months of his 3-year-old campaign to recover from a setback. Stronger than ever in May, he ran another huge race to finish second in the Knicks Go, only to develop the splint and miss more time.

“If it were not for some of the setbacks, I think we could have done better,” Campbell said. “But he’s a horse that will run for a long, long time. He’s a very sound horse, and I think you’ll see him [as a 5-year-old] and beyond.”

Patriot Spirit may not be a natural sprinter these days, but the seven-furlong Reigh Count is still an ideal return race. The colt won his juvenile debut at Colonial by six lengths and came back off the layoff in his 3-year-old season, winning a $90,000 allowance in similar fashion.

Love Sign Stakes

Trainer Rodolphe Brisset is shipping a pair of sprinters from Keeneland for their second career stakes starts in the $100,000 Love Sign Stakes.

Bourbon Breeze, a 4-year-old filly, made her stakes debut in the $100,000 Saylorville at Prairie Meadows earlier this month, where she unexpectedly settled off the pace and finished fourth.

“I was really not expecting to be that far back,” Brisset said. “I don’t think the jockey did anything wrong, the horse outside of us might have come over a little bit. I don’t know, but it’s not where we were expecting to be.”

Brisset claimed Bourbon Breeze for $30,000 in February and instantly switched her from synthetic to dirt, where she earned victories at Keeneland and Oaklawn before finishing second in a tougher conditioned allowance at Churchill Downs.

While Bourbon Breeze will be expected to build on her Saylorville effort, her stablemate, 6-year-old mare Top Gun Girl, will be re-entering stakes company for the first time in nearly three years.

Primarily a turf sprinter when she was with Wesley Ward, Brisset has run her on dirt in two allowances since claiming her for $80,000 in May. After a runner-up finish in a sloppy 7 1/2-furlong sprint, she cut back to six furlongs in June and was forced to rate behind a rogue pacesetter through blistering early fractions. She finished sixth.

Brisset’s pair will benefit from some key scratches in the Love Sign, as 5-year-old mare Ms. Bucchero and 3-year-old filly Sunset Express will not make the trip.

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