Tylan a major threat on front end
For most of his adult life, Phil Sims has been hearing wisecracks about how he shares the same phonetic name as a far more famous fellow Kentuckian. Sims was on the verge of starting his career as a horse trainer while attending the University of Kentucky in Lexington in the late 1970's, just when a future National Football League star quarterback named Phil Simms was winding down his college football career at Morehead State University in eastern Kentucky.
More than a quarter-century later, Phil Simms, who hung up his cleats in 1993, has gone on to prominence as an analyst for the lead broadcasting team for CBS Sports' NFL telecasts. Meanwhile, Phil Sims is finishing off one of the best years of a journeyman career, and on Tuesday, he will send Tylan to Turfway Park for the featured event of a rare Tuesday card.
Into Saturday, Sims already had sent out 18 winners this year, his highest total since he began his career in 1980. Two of those victories were recorded by Joe Got Even, a promising 2-year-old colt who on Saturday had his first workout since finishing fifth in the Nov. 25 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Another of the wins was registered by Tylan, a 2-year-old filly who on Tuesday will be attempting to replicate a Sept. 22 triumph over the Turfway Polytrack.
Tylan, owned by Beverly and Joe Kendall, drew post 1 in a field of nine fillies entered in the ninth of 10 races, a $21,200 entry-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles. In two races since her maiden triumph, both at this level, Tylan has finished sixth at Keeneland and then third on Dec. 8 at Turfway. Her front-running style should make her a solid threat Tuesday. Rafael Mojica Jr. will ride.
The top threats to Tylan appear to be Conga, a Helen Pitts-trained filly who nosed out Tylan for second in the Dec. 8 race, and Stravinsky's Code, a Paul McGee-trained filly who has shown steady improvement in four career starts. Stravinsky's Code brings the highest last-race Beyer Speed Figure into the Tuesday feature, a 70, which he earned in a maiden claiming romp at Turfway on Dec. 6.
The Tuesday card is the first of seven straight daytime programs at Turfway. Nighttime racing on weeknights will resume after the holiday stretch of daytime racing concludes next Monday, Jan. 1.