Upstart vs. veteran in Twin Spires Turf Sprint
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – World of Trouble, now 4, emerged last year as one of the best turf sprinters in training. The 9-year-old Undrafted is a mainstay in the division. They meet in the Grade 2, $250,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint on Friday at Churchill Downs.
World of Trouble has missed the board only once in 11 career starts while running on both turf and dirt. He has five stakes victories in his last six outings, with the only loss in that span a neck defeat against champion Stormy Liberal in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs. He earned a 118 Beyer Speed Figure for that race.
This year, World of Trouble won the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Stakes on a sloppy, sealed track when that race was taken off the turf on Jan. 26. He remained on the main track to win the Grade 1 Carter Handicap on April 6 at Aqueduct.
“What can I say? He’s a running son of a gun,” trainer Jason Servis said after the Carter. “He makes me look good. If I had a mare I would breed to him, and the fact that he can do dirt and turf, I think we might go back to the turf. It would add some flavor to him as a stallion and then maybe back to the dirt, so we’ll see.”
Undrafted, making his 40th start and first on the year, has earned more than $1.5 million. His accomplished career has included three trips to the Royal Ascot meeting, with a victory in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes in 2015, and three appearances in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, with a third-place finish in 2014.
Trained by Wesley Ward, Undrafted has not won a stakes race since 2016. His two most recent wins were in allowances at Churchill Downs, including his most recent outing last November.
World of Trouble, the even-money favorite on the morning line, drew post 6 under Manny Franco, who was aboard in the Carter. Undrafted landed post 8 in the field of nine and picked up the services of Irad Ortiz Jr. when stablemate Bound for Nowhere scratched on the morning of the race.
Will Call, last year’s Twin Spires winner, was fifth in the Shakertown. Angaston, third in the Shakertown, has shown a fondness for the Churchill turf, as he is a head away from being unbeaten in three starts on the course.
