Top trio has something to prove in Churchill allowance
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Big, strong, bay colt. Ran in the Kentucky Derby. Junior Alvarado rides for trainer Bill Mott.
No, Sovereignty, though he matches the description, isn’t starting in the featured eighth race on Wednesday at Churchill Downs. This is Resilience, who drew the outside post in an eight-runner field composed of six second-level, dirt-route allowance horses and two entered under the race’s $80,000 claiming option.
Resilience caught the eye training at Churchill for the 2024 Derby, in which he earned a start by winning the Wood Memorial. A solid sixth in the Derby, Resilience fell apart in the Belmont Stakes, didn’t race again for about 11 months, and still seeks his first victory since the Wood.
Mott began running Resilience without blinkers two starts ago, and either through the equipment change or some other motivating factor, Resilience popped back into his better form. He missed by a nose racing at this class level over a half-furlong farther, 1 1/8 miles, in September at Churchill, and validated that showing with a ground-losing third in a Keeneland short-stretch mile. Alvarado rides Resilience for the first time since the Belmont.
The Wednesday feature also marks a noteworthy return to action for a horse and a jockey. Passion Rules starts for the first time since he checked in third on April 5 in the Wood. And when Brian Hernandez Jr. breaks Sir Greylind from the starting gate, he’ll ride his first race since suffering some pretty serious injuries when his mount broke down during a Sept. 21 race at Churchill.
Hernandez hoped to make his comeback a week before the Breeders’ Cup but didn’t miss much when he wasn’t quite ready for action. His plum mount for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Thorpedo Anna, didn’t even make the race, retired after a flat showing in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. And Blackout Time, second to BC Juvenile winner Ted Noffey in the Breeders’ Futurity, was scratched from the Juvenile by regulatory veterinarians.
Sir Greylind rates a solid chance. Never worse than third in eight starts, he returned from a seven-month layoff at Churchill on Sept. 18 and finished third, a half-length behind Resilience.
Passion Rules finished a well-beaten third in the Wood, 5 1/2 lengths behind victorious Rodriguez and 1 3/4 lengths behind runner-up Grande. Yet his trainer, Brad Cox, expressed satisfaction that the colt ran as well as he did. Passion Rules won his first three starts while very well spotted and has something to prove at this class level while facing older horses for the first time.
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