Storm Runner, a runner-up at 159-1 last month, has new owners

Storm Runner was a whopping 159-1 when he finished second last month under apprentice Rogelio Miranda in his lone start, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race on the main track at Ellis Park. Team Valor founder Barry Irwin said the debut effort piqued his interest to the extent that he arranged the purchase of the 2-year-old Get Stormy colt on behalf of Team Valor and Gemstone Stables, and Storm Runner returns in the fifth race Thursday at Kentucky Downs.

Irwin said that one reason he bought Storm Runner was because he is bred to go long on grass.

“He was ridiculously wide, and the rider lost the whip,” Irwin said. “He showed raw talent. We bought him based on his pedigree.”

Storm Runner, now trained by Dale Romans, will be ridden by circuit newcomer Alex Canchari in the $130,000 maiden race. He is listed as the 9-2 second choice on the morning line.

Biancone ends lengthy hiatus

Patrick Biancone will saddle Salutation for the second race Thursday, marking the trainer’s first starter in Kentucky in nearly a decade.

Biancone, who served a one-year suspension in the infamous cobra venom case that unfolded in June 2007, was granted a conditional license last month by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Biancone, 65, has won with 101 of 912 starters (11 percent), all in other jurisdictions, since 2008. His last starter on this circuit was Her Majesty, ninth in the Raven Run at Keeneland in October 2007.

◗ Colonelsdarktemper, winner of the West Virginia Derby last month, remains on target for a run in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Sept. 23 at Parx Racing. Owned by the famed racecar driver A.J. Foyt Jr., the Colonel John colt has had two bullet drills for trainer Jinks Fires at Churchill Downs since returning to training.