Runhappy Turf Sprint looks like a tossup

When all the analyzing of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint gets under way, there can be little doubt that one of the preps to draw the closest scrutiny will be a race they’ll run Saturday at Kentucky Downs.

Indeed, many of the top legitimate prospects for the Nov. 7 BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland are entered in the Grade 3, $700,000 Runhappy Turf Sprint, the only BC Win and You’re In event of the Kentucky Downs season.

Bound for Nowhere, Totally Boss, Imprimis, Front Run the Fed, and even a few more make for a remarkably deep renewal of the Turf Sprint, a six-furlong race that ends a sensational 11-race Saturday card (post, 5:36 p.m. Central).

Bound for Nowhere, whose only Kentucky Downs start resulted in a victory in the rich Tourist Mile two years ago, was assigned post 12 in an oversubscribed lineup. Only 12 of the 16 entries can start, meaning jockey Julio Garcia should have plenty of elbow room aboard Bound for Nowhere from that outer box, assuming no scratches from the main body.

“Julio can play it as it comes,” said Ward, who scratched Bound from Nowhere from a turf sprint last weekend at Churchill Downs to run for a purse nearly three times as high. “The horse is ready. Let’s just hope everything unfolds our way.”

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Totally Boss (post 4, Florent Geroux) is the defending race champ. Last year he earned the automatic BC berth, posting a 101 Beyer Speed Figure that remains a career high. The 5-year-old gelding comes off a just-miss second behind his Rusty Arnold stablemate, Leinster, in the July 11 Shakertown on Blue Grass Stakes Day at Keeneland.

“He loved it down there last year,” said Arnold, adding the gelding seems to prefer six furlongs to something shorter. “He gets to relax a little bit, get his spot. I don’t think he’s a natural five-eighths horse. He’s trained good for this and he’s ready to go.”

With turf-sprint stakes in relatively short supply in 2020, most of the field have had fewer starts than they might have otherwise this year, owing mostly to the stoppage of racing on certain circuits during the global pandemic. Leinster goes next in the Oct. 3 Woodford on the Keeneland turf.

“The one thing the pandemic did for me this year was keep me from over-racing these horses,” said Arnold. “So I’ve got two fresh horses going into the fall. Anything can happen, anything can go wrong. But right now both horses are very sound, very fresh, and ready to go.”

Imprimis (post 9, Irad Ortiz Jr.), whose last-out disqualification from first to third in the Grade 3 Troy on the Aug. 8 Travers undercard at Saratoga had many of his backers howling, “came out of that race reeeeally good,” trainer Joe Orseno said Thursday prior to boarding a plane out of Florida.

Imprimis, a Florida-bred who is ineligible for the Kentucky-bred bonuses that comprise $200,000 of the total purse, owns the highest career Beyer (110) in the field and is primed for a repeat of his Troy effort, said Orseno.

“I am so happy with him,” he said. “He’s trained perfect into this race. He really is on top of his game.

Stubbins, Front Run the Fed, and Kanthaka, who made their most recent starts at Belmont Park, also figure among the top contenders in this 22nd running of the Turf Sprint.

Stubbins (post 2, Joel Rosario) was good enough to win the 2019 Woodford at Keeneland and has been competitive without emerging a winner in three subsequent starts. Doug O’Neill trains the late-running 4-year-old colt.

Front Run the Fed (post 3, Javier Castellano) hails from the ever-potent Chad Brown shed row, and, for that reason alone, surely will take his share of backing – even with this being the first-ever stakes try for a 4-year-old colt exiting a third-level allowance triumph at Belmont.

Kanthaka (post 6, Jose Ortiz) was making his first start in more than a year and his first for Graham Motion when collared near the wire by the standout mare Oleksandra in the Grade 1 Jaipur on the June 20 Belmont Stakes undercard. The 5-year-old gelding would be very dangerous here if he can move up off that badly needed run.

Longer shots in the main body of the race are Renaisance Frolic, Bombard, American Anthem, Bon Raison, Richiesinthehouse, and Archidust. Of those, maybe Bombard rates the best upset chance when turning back from the two-turn Del Mar Mile and getting Flavien Prat back up.

The race looks so wide open that track linemaker Byron King has listed Totally Boss as a very lukewarm 9-2 favorite, with five more in a tight range of 5-1 to 8-1.