Trio of stakes anchor late pick four
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – No turf? No problem. Another stakes Saturday looks good enough to make bettors forget that turf racing has been suspended at Churchill Downs as a trio of $275,000 races will anchor an 11-race program sure to entertain.
Those stakes, all for 3-year-olds, go as races 8 through 10 on a Saturday card expected to be run amid ideal early autumn weather. Rain soaked the local area for three straight days, Monday through Wednesday, before clearing Thursday. First post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with sunshine and a high of 73 in the metro Louisville forecast. Barring erring meteorologists, the track will be fast.
The $10 million renovation of the seven-furlong turf course remains on schedule for completion in time for the 2022 spring meet. Meanwhile, racing at the 12-day September meet, which runs through Oct. 3, and the fall meet (Oct. 31 to Nov. 28), is being conducted solely on the main track.
The first of the Saturday stakes, the Dogwood, is a longstanding fixture in its 45th running, but the other two, the Bourbon Trail (race 9) and Harrods Creek (race 10), were newly created to replace turf stakes on hiatus. Purses for all three stakes include $50,000 in bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds.
Dogwood
Carribean Caper trained so well all summer at the nearby Trackside training center that her trainer, Al Stall Jr., didn’t dare mess with success, even after he reconsolidated much of his stable back to Churchill upon returning earlier this month from his annual sojourn to Saratoga.
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“I just want to keep everything exactly the way it’s been, as well as she’s been doing,” said Stall. “We’re really, really looking forward to this race. I’ve trained her a little bit more than I had been, and she’s handled it very well, so we ought to be okay.”
Carribean Caper is unbeaten in four starts and will be heavily favored in the Dogwood, a seven-furlong race that leads off the 50-cent late pick four (races 8-11). She’ll leave from post 2 and will be ridden by Colby Hernandez, Stall’s fellow Louisianan and the only jockey ever to ride the Speightstown filly in her races.
The latest victory for Carribean Caper came in the Aug. 15 Audubon Oaks at Ellis Park, where she earned a career- and field-high 89 Beyer Speed Figure. A similar effort laying just off a pace likely to be set by either of the two outside fillies, Patty H (post 6, Julien Leparoux) and Someone Said So (post 7, Adam Beschizza), should be enough to keep her undefeated and propel her forward as a major contender for her next likely start, the Oct. 23 Raven Run at Keeneland.
Bourbon Trail
One quick glance at the running lines for King Fury, and there’s little doubt he’s the class in a field of seven going 1 3/16 miles. With Brian Hernandez Jr. riding from post 4, King Fury will be looking to emulate some of his better career efforts, including wins here last fall in the Street Sense and in the April 10 Lexington at Keeneland.
“Look, King Fury is a standout,” said one of the opposing trainers, Tom Amoss, who will saddle Sermononthemount (post 7, James Graham). “But there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of speed in there, and he usually needs some pace – although he’s probably the best horse, no matter what.
“Our horse has pretty much the same running style he has, which is kind of weighing on my mind. But that said, he’s doing good, I like the distance, I like the post, and we’re not going to change anything with him just because of how the race looks on paper. He’ll break, sit, and try to make a big run late.”
After winning the Lexington with a huge late run, King Fury was scratched off the program for the May 1 Kentucky Derby by trainer Ken McPeek because of a minor illness. Since then, the Curlin colt has been second in the Ohio Derby, 10th in the Saratoga Derby on turf, and a well-beaten fifth behind Essential Quality in the Aug. 28 Travers.
Sermononthemount has strung together several solid efforts in recent months and figures as the second choice in a lineup that also includes Gagetown and King’s Ovation as fringe players.
Harrods Creek
A big day at Churchill seemingly can no longer exist without Brad Cox, the 2020 Eclipse-winning trainer whose five entries here Saturday include He’smyhoneybadger (post 4, Martin Garcia), one of a handful of contenders in a wide-open field of 10 in this seven-furlong male counterpart to the Dogwood.
He’smyhoneybadger has won two of his last three starts, earning Beyers of 87 and 86 in those wins, and looks about as good as any in a scramble that can also count Emerald Forest, Dreamer’s Disease, Ram, and maybe a couple others as viable. Of particular interest will be the degree of enthusiasm horseplayers show for Emerald Forest (post 5, Jose Guerrero), who ships in from Louisiana with field-high Beyers of 92, 96, and 93 from his last three starts.