Somelikeithotbrown, Skywire top Jeff Ruby Steaks

Somelikeithotbrown was made the 8-5 morning-line favorite and Skywire the 3-1 second choice when 11 3-year-olds were entered Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

The Jeff Ruby, positioned earlier in March this year to provide better spacing into the final round of major Kentucky Derby preps, is one of three graded stakes races for 3-year-olds run across the country Saturday, with the others being the Tampa Bay Derby and the Gotham from Aqueduct. A 1 1/8-mile race on Polytrack, the Jeff Ruby has the smallest purse of the trio of stakes and offers the winner 20 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby versus 50 in each of the other Saturday Derby preps.

With less on the line and with the race being on a synthetic surface, the Jeff Ruby primarily drew a cast of unknowns aside from the favorites. However, the two leading names hold promise, with Somelikeithotbrown having been third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, a race he followed this year by winning the Feb. 15 John Battaglia Memorial. Second-choice Skywire is perfect in two starts.

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Skywire, a six-length allowance winner in the slop Feb. 13 at Gulfstream, had been briefly considered by trainer Mark Casse for last week’s Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream before being routed instead to the Jeff Ruby. That decision was based in part on Casse’s desire to run the colt in the Queen’s Plate for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds this summer at Woodbine, which, like Turfway, has a synthetic surface.

Skywire won his first race at Woodbine, taking a six-furlong maiden event there Dec. 9 for prior trainer Sid Attard. After that victory, owner Lucio Tucci sold partial ownership in the horse to Gary Barber, and the horse was transferred to Casse.

“He has made some shrewd buys,” Casse said of Barber’s private acquisitions in recent years.

Barber and Casse won the Queen’s Plate last year with Wonder Gadot, the runner-up to Monomoy Girl in the 2018 Kentucky Oaks.

If Skywire performs well in the Jeff Ruby, Casse said he would consider running him back in the Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 6 to assess his potential chances in the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Jim Shircliff, one of the owners of the Mike Maker-trained Somelikeithotbrown, expressed similar Blue Grass and Derby hopes, while stating the long-term goal for their runner is New York’s newly created Turf Trinity series for 3-year-old grass horses, which begins with the $1 million Belmont Derby Invitational on July 6.

Somelikeithotbrown is one of just two stakes winners in the Jeff Ruby, with the other being Five Star General, who won the off-the-turf Central Park Stakes at Aqueduct last fall. The latter, 6-1 on the Jeff Ruby morning line, finished sixth in the Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 9 at Tampa, his first start as a 3-year-old.

Two other Jeff Ruby competitors also exit the Sam F. Davis – Counter Offer (10-1), who rallied to be fourth; and Moonster (20-1), the eighth-place finisher.

From the rail, this is the Jeff Ruby lineup: Dynamic Racer, Moonster, Five Star General, Dabo, Baytown Jimbo, Skywire, Counter Offer, Twelfthofneverland, Curlin Grey, Somelikeithotbrown, and Speed App.

As usual, some out-of-town riders have secured mounts in the Jeff Ruby, the most prominent of whom are Tyler Gaffalione and Brian Hernandez Jr., both currently based at Gulfstream Park. Gaffalione rides Somelikeithotbrown, while Hernandez is aboard Curlin Grey.

Five supporting stakes complement the Jeff Ruby on Saturday’s 12-race program at Turfway, led by the $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks and $100,000 Kentucky Cup Classic. The Bourbonette was downgraded from Grade 3 to listed status this year but remains a prep for the Kentucky Oaks, offering 20 points to the winner.

Into Trouble, second in the Gasparilla in her seasonal bow on dirt Jan. 19 at Tampa, appears the filly to beat in the 12-horse Bourbonette, having won the Arlington-Washington Lassie last summer on Arlington Park’s Polytrack.

“That’s kind of why we looked at Bourbonette,” trainer Ben Colebrook said.

The Kentucky Cup Classic, revived last year after being on hiatus since 2011, is among the better races on the card, with Nun the Less, Royal Son, and Sir Dudley Digges among its top contenders.

First post Saturday is 1:10 p.m. Eastern, in contrast to Turfway’s customary evening programs, with the Jeff Ruby to be run at 6:37. The forecast calls for rain and a high temperature in the low 50s.