Seeking the Soul enjoys home-field advantage for Clark
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There’s something to be said for sleeping in one’s own stall. Seeking the Soul tends to fare better running out of Barn 37 at Churchill Downs than anywhere else, having already captured both of the track’s biggest races for older horses.
“He’s back at Churchill, where we know he likes to win,” said Dallas Stewart, who trains Seeking the Soul for owner-breeder Chuck Fipke.
Seeking the Soul, a 6-year-old horse with career earnings of $3.4 million, has finished no better than fourth in his last three starts, all of them in California, ending with a sixth-place finish earlier this month in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. Before that, however, he won the Grade 2 Stephen Foster, adding to his local record of four wins and more than $1 million in purses from 12 starts. His other Churchill wins include the 2017 Clark and the 2018 Ack Ack.
If only because of that home-track factor, Seeking the Soul deserves respect Friday in the 145th running of the Grade 1, $600,000 Clark at Churchill. He’ll have Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard when he breaks from post 11 in a field of 12 in the 1 1/8-mile race.
“He looks like he did when he was preparing for the 2017 Clark,” Stewart said. “We’re very excited to get him in the gate Friday.”
From the rail, this is the Clark field: Draft Pick, Tom’s d’Etat, Mocito Rojo, Major Cabbie, Snapper Sinclair, Fact Finding, Mr. Buff, Owendale, Mr Freeze, Bravazo, Seeking the Soul, and Pioneer Spirit.
Weight assignments range from 123 to 118 pounds under allowance conditions, with Churchill having rid itself of all handicap races earlier this year.
First post Friday is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the Clark being run under the lights at 5:56 as the 11th of 12 races. It’s one of two graded stakes on what is always the most well-attended day of the fall meet, coming an hour after the Mrs. Revere (race 9, 4:57) for 3-year-old fillies on turf.
