Shazier reps his namesake in Bourbon Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. – One of the longer shots in the Bourbon Stakes here Sunday is Shazier, a colt named for Ryan Shazier, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker who suffered a serious spinal injury in a game last December. Joe Bravo, who will ride the Cairo Prince colt for trainer Carlo Vaccarezza, will wear silks sporting the Steelers logo.

“They’re going to have the NBC show [that includes the Bourbon] on the TV in the Steeler locker room after their game Sunday” against Atlanta, said Vaccarezza, who became friends several years ago with Ryan Shazier through a mutuel friend, Greg Nikolopolous, a Boca Raton, Fla., philanthropist who is one of the co-owners in the colt. “It’s pretty exciting.”

Shazier raced to his maiden victory in a Sept. 15 turf mile at Gulfstream Park and has trained forwardly in the interim, Vaccarezza said.

“It looks like a wide-open race, so maybe we can get lucky,” he said. “It’d be great to win for Ryan.”

◗ In addition to the three stakes here Sunday, a stakes-caliber, $73,000 allowance will be run earlier on a 10-race card when Big Dollar Bill, Phat Man, Guest Suite, and Senior Investment are part of a field of seven older horses in race 2 at 1 1/16 miles.

Big Dollar Bill is 2 for 2 over the Keeneland main track and comes favorably drawn in post 1 with Chris Landeros riding for his father-in-law, trainer Ian Wilkes.

◗ An oversubscribed field of 2-year-old turf fillies has been entered in the 10th and final Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In race of the fall meet, the Grade 2, $200,000 Jessamine, which headlines the Wednesday card as the seventh of eight races.

Fierce Scarlett, a highly impressive maiden winner last month on the Belmont Park turf for Chad Brown, could go favored when ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. In all, 19 were entered, with 16 being carded on the program and only as many as 14 allowed to start in the 1 1/16-mile turf race.

◗ Rushing Fall, already a two-time stakes winner over the Keeneland course, heads a list of 10 3-year-old turf fillies invited next Saturday to the sixth and last Grade 1 race of the fall meet, the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup.

Here are the other invitees to the 1 1/8-mile QE II: Beyond Blame, Capla Temptress, Daddy Is a Legend, Fatale Bere, Mission Impassible, Nyaleti, Pollara, Princess Warrior, and Secret Message.

◗ Baseball fans old enough to remember the last time the Milwaukee Brewers played in the World Series might get a kick out of the name of the No. 5 horse in the fifth race Sunday, a maiden 2-year-old colt trained by Kenny McPeek: Harvey Wallbanger, the collective nickname for the sluggers on the 1982 American League champions. Milwaukee, now in the National League, is currently making a serious playoff run at its next World Series.