Rivelli has two with sights set on Kentucky Downs Sprint

The $200,000 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint Preview is carded as race 6 on Sunday at Ellis Park, but the race feels a little bit like Chicago. Trainers Larry Rivelli and Brittany Vanden Berg, fixtures on what’s left of the Chicago racing circuit, start two of the race’s more likely winners, One Timer and Bad Beat Brian.

One Timer is based at Hawthorne with Rivelli, who has kept his large string centered in Chicago, shipping around the Midwest and to East Coast tracks as needed. Bad Beat Brian has been training at the Churchill Downs Training Center, where Vanden Berg has begun running a string to race at the Kentucky tracks.

Rivelli on Saturday ran second in the Troy Stakes at Saratoga, another turf sprint, with Nobals. One Timer is nearly as capable as Nobals and comes into Sunday’s 5 1/2-furlong contest following a close third-place finish going six furlongs at Woodbine in the Grade 2 Hilander. Rivelli and owners Richard Ravin and Patricia’s Hope surely have their sights trained on the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint itself since One Timer last summer won the rich Franklin Simpson Stakes over the Euro-style Kentucky Downs course. E.T. Baird rode Nobals on Saturday at Saratoga and was named on 4-year-old One Timer, a son of Trappe Shot.

Bad Beat Brian was trained for much of his career by Mike Maker before Vanden Berg and her owners claimed the gelding last summer for $40,000. Good claim. Bad Beat Brian finished third in the 2022 renewal of this race making his first start following the claim, went on to win two high-end allowance races for these connections, and came within a head of beating Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Caravel in the Grade 2 Shakertown this past April at Keeneland. Bad Beat Brian makes his first start since May and likely also has Kentucky Downs as his major goal since one of his allowance wins for Vanden Berg came over that course.

One Time got cooked on a hot pace in the Highlander, allowing late-running Oceanic to nab him for second. A similar performance puts Oceanic at least in the exotics mix Sunday, while Charcoal finished a close second in this race last year.

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