Trainer Davis looking for first stakes win in Dogwood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chris Davis is hoping to get the first stakes win of his nascent training career when he sends out Student Body as a top contender Saturday night in the $100,000 Dogwood Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Student Body set the pace before fading over a sloppy track earlier this month in the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga, but should fare better over a dry surface, said Davis.

“She didn’t quicken like she normally does,” he said.

Student Body, with Brian Hernandez Jr. to ride, is part of an expected big field of 3-year-old fillies in a competitive 42nd running of the seven-furlong Dogwood, a divisional stepping-stone to the Grade 2 Raven Run on Oct. 21 at Keeneland.

“I think she’s going to run a lot better,” said Davis, 28, who went out on his own last fall after serving as an assistant to Phil D’Amato, Mike Stidham, and Pat Byrne. “She broke her maiden at Churchill at the same distance.”

The Dogwood is the highlight of the last night card of the year at Churchill. First post is 6 p.m. Eastern, with the Dogwood going at 10:11 as the ninth of 11 races. The $100,000 President of the United Arab Emirates Cup, a Grade 1 race for Arabians, goes as race 10 (10:42) and has been purposely excluded from the Single 6 sequence (races 4-9). The last race goes at 11:10.

Churchill has been heavily marketing the Downs After Dark card in the local area with a theme of Bourbon, Bets, and Bow Ties. No rain is in the forecast here all week.