Shining Copper breaks through in River City Handicap

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For a while, Shining Copper was a warm-up act for other stakes turf horses owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, notably serving as a rabbit for Grade 1 winner Big Blue Kitten in 2015, but he proved Thursday in winning Grade 3, $100,000 River City Handicap at Churchill Downs that he is also a capable headliner.

Flashing the early speed that served him well in his past days as a pacemaker, he carved out reasonable splits of 24.28 seconds, 48.77 and 1:14.24 over a “good” course, and after being put to an early drive on the second turn, was never significantly threatened in notching a 1 3/4-length victory. He completed 1 1/8 miles on a “good” course in 1:52.78, paying $10.40.

Winning jockey Corey Lanerie said his strategy was to let his mount do his thing early before trying to distance Shining Copper from the pack midway on the second turn.

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“By the three eighths pole I started to ask him a little bit,” he said. “I thought if I could get to the eighth pole in front that I would have a pretty good chance of holding on, and he did.”

The River City Handicap victory, the most prestigous of Shining Copper’s career, came in just his third start of 2017. The 7-year-old gelded son of Aragorn had been sidelined for more than a year after winning the Lure Stakes at Saratoga in the summer of 2016. He had become extremely sick afterward, trainer Mike Maker said.

“He’s just an iron horse,” said Maker, who claimed Shining Copper for $62,500 in 2015.

Although the winning outcome of the River City was never in doubt, that was not the case for the minor awards behind Shining Copper. Four horses were in a blanket photo for the secondary prizes, with Kasaqui edging Revved Up, Thatcher Street, and Team Colors from second to fifth.

Dull in the announced final race of his career was favored War Correspondent, who finished eighth. A son of War Front, he goes to stud in 2018 at Calumet Farm.