Thanksgiving Classic: Greeley and Ben still hungry after winning nine straight
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The winningest horse of 2021 will try to sustain his remarkable rise Thursday in the $150,000 Thanksgiving Classic on opening day at Fair Grounds.
Greeley and Ben already has notched 11 wins this year, more than any other North American Thoroughbred, and comes into the Thanksgiving Classic a winner of nine in a row.
Trainer Karl Broberg, who races his horses under the nom de course End Zone Athletics, claimed Greeley and Ben for $10,000 on March 7. Greely and Ben, a 7-year-old by Greeley’s Conquest, won 13 days later while entered for a $12,500 price but hasn’t run for a tag since. He was sixth March 28 when Broberg ran him right back in a starter-allowance and has not lost since, capturing six starter races, two allowance races, and, most recently, the $150,000 David M Vance Stakes at Remington Park.
His last seven races have come at six furlongs on dirt, like the Thanksgiving, and Greeley and Ben has won his last four starts by at least one length. He won the Vance by 2 1/2 and faces a comparable field Thursday while carrying 124 pounds, including Fair Grounds newcomer Reylu Gutierrez.
Trainer Al Stall Jr., a New Orleans native who grew up going to the Fair Grounds opener on Thanksgiving, has won this race three times the last five years, with Yockey’s Warrior in 2016 and 2017 and with Bobby’s Wicked One in 2019, but his entrant this year, Pyron, looks less formidable. Pyron used to be trained by Steve Asmussen, who won the 2020 Thanksgiving with Nitrous and on Thursday sends out Strike Power.
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Six-year-old Strike Power hasn’t started since finishing a well-beaten sixth in Vanderbilt, a soft Grade 1 in August at Saratoga, but while his best days are behind him, he did pop a couple performances this past winter and spring that could win the Thanksgiving.
Rail-drawn Necker Island was rejuvenated this fall when trainer Chris Hartman cut the 4-year-old back from routes to sprints. Necker Island easily won a seven-furlong allowance race at Churchill before landing a narrow victory Nov. 6 in the $300,000 Bet On Sunshine going six furlongs. He’ll have a decent chance to get up in time if the leaders go fast enough, but Just Might, drawn on the outside of this seven-horse field, looks the most likely winner.
After winning four straight stakes – two on turf, two on dirt – Just Might finished sixth in the Grade 2 Phoenix on Oct. 8 at Keeneland but had a clear excuse for the subpar performance, according to trainer Michelle Lovell. Just Might was late to change leads while racing competitively in upper stretch and when he eventually did switch, the gelding grabbed his quarter, a painful injury. “It was pretty tender for a while,” Lovell said.
Lovell kept the speedy Just Might in a stakes race scheduled for turf and rained onto dirt last winter at Fair Grounds, and Just Might, whom she owns in partnership with Griffon Farms, won easily earning a career-best 101 Beyer Speed Figure.
“It’s a good draw,” Lovell said. “He doesn’t have to be on the lead. He should break good and put himself wherever he’s comfortable.”
Thursday’s supporting feature is the $75,000 Joe Peluso Memorial, for fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles on turf. Among a long list of contenders is multiple graded-stakes winner Alms, set to improve upon a Keeneland turf-sprint comeback race following a long layoff.
“She hated the soft turf there. She’s healthy, happy, and ready to go,” said trainer Mike Stidham.