Streaking Lynch readies Admission Office for Wise Dan in Arlington Stakes

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brian Lynch is going so good that even Mother Nature is on his side. Wet weather led Lynch to scratch Admission Office from an off-the-turf allowance last Thursday at Churchill Downs, and now the stretch-running 7-year-old has resurfaced in a potential winning spot.

“This is our big meet,” said Lynch, who sent out four winners, all with different jockeys, over the Memorial Day weekend at Churchill. “We really focused on having some horses ready for this meet, and it’s been a great start.”

Admission Office is among six older horses in the Grade 3 Arlington Stakes, one of six $200,000 stakes set for the Foster Preview Day card Saturday at Churchill. Sunny weather is the forecast for an 11-race program that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.

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Lynch has been among the hottest trainers on the grounds the last two or three weeks, along with Rusty Arnold, Brendan Walsh, Joe Sharp, and Randy Morse. His four winners were ridden by Declan Cannon, Ricardo Santana Jr., Mitch Murrill, and Julien Leparoux, and he’ll be giving John Velazquez a leg up on Admission Office.

“Admission Office has been a real project to get back to the races,” said Lynch, referring to a 15-month layoff for the newly gelded Amerman Racing homebred. “Nothing serious – just a chain of continual little things. He’s been training really well and I’m expecting him to run really well.”

The Arlington, transplanted from its former longtime home at now-shuttered Arlington Park in suburban Chicago and shortened up to 1 1/16 miles on turf, is a prep for the Grade 2 Wise Dan four weeks later. In fact, all of the Preview Day races are designed as preps for the same July 2 card – the Regret for the Tepin, the Shawnee for the Fleur de Lis, the Aristides for the Kelly’s Landing, the Blame for the Stephen Foster, and the Audubon for the American Derby.

A multitude of graded stakes winners will be in action on the Foster Preview card. Among them: Pauline’s Pearl, winner of the Grade 1 La Troienne earlier in the meet, wheels back in the Shawnee, and Americanrevolution runs in the Blame when making his first start since winning the Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct exactly six months ago.

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This is the Saturday stakes lineup: Regret (race 5, 2:45); Shawnee (race 7, 3:50); Arlington (race 8, 4:22); Aristides (race 9, 4:55); Blame (race 10, 5:26); Audubon (race 11, 5:58)

All purses include $25,000 in Kentucky-bred bonuses. Only the last two races are scheduled to be shown live on television (FoxSports2, 5-6:30).

A seventh stakes this weekend, the Grade 3 Mint Julep, will be run Sunday for fillies and mares on turf.