Sir Dudley Digges looks to reproduce big effort for smaller crowd

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sir Dudley Digges has maximized his grand-stage opportunities. The 4-year-old colt has won just three times from 15 starts, but two of those victories came by a hard-fought half-length on the biggest days of racing in the two countries where he has competed.

Last July, Sir Dudley Digges won the Queen’s Plate, the most prestigious race in Canada. And on Kentucky Derby Day last month at Churchill Downs, he won a second-level turf allowance.

“I guess he enjoys showing off for a crowd,” joked Mike Maker, who trains Sir Dudley Digges for Ken and Sarah Ramsey.

Twilight Thursday at Churchill does not qualify as a big day in racing – other than, perhaps, for some ontrack fans going all in on the $1 beer special – but Maker hopes Sir Dudley Digges will bring his ‘A’ game back to Churchill from his Trackside training center base for the nominal feature, a $59,700, third-level allowance that anchors an eight-race card.

“He ran real well to win Derby Day, and we’re looking for him to duplicate that performance,” said Maker.

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Sir Dudley Digges, with Julien Leparoux to ride from post 4, looks like the horse to beat among a field of seven older horses in the third race, scheduled for 1 1/8 miles on the turf. First post is 5 p.m. Eastern, with the feature going at 5:58.

Maker said he has campaigned Sir Dudley Digges sparingly this year partly to wait for synthetic-surface races this summer at Arlington Park or Woodbine. The Queen’s Plate was run over Tapeta at Woodbine.

“He’s shown he’s pretty effective over synthetic or turf,” said Maker.

Among the chief opposition for Sir Dudley Digges are Big Changes (post 1, Corey Lanerie), whose last victory came over the Churchill turf at the 2016 spring meet, and Surgical Strike (post 3, Brian Hernandez Jr.), who makes a rare drop into the allowance ranks after competing primarily in stakes.

Only six are likely to start, with For Greater Glory being entered for the main track only.

The feature is the opening leg of the 20-cent Single 6 (races 3-8). A jackpot of $96,299 is up for grabs since there was no solo winner in the rollover gimmick during the last 12 racing days, including Sunday, when no perfect tickets whatsoever were sold as longshots dominated.

Two other allowances come later in the sequence.

Race 6 is a $57,500, second-level turf sprint that drew an extremely well-matched field of fillies and mares, with a core of lukewarm favorites likely to include Fiesta, Silvertoni, Fort Marsh, and Justa Lady.

Race 7 is a $55,300, first-level, main-track sprint that figures to have El Venue as one of the top wagering choices when returning from a 13-month layoff for Randy Morse.