Utah Beach looks to prove last-out win was no fluke in Louisville Stakes
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With a perfect trip over his favorite turf course, Utah Beach, an 11-1 shot, won the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes last month at Keeneland, getting up by a head over favored Limited Liability, the recipient of, shall we say, an adventuresome trip.
Does that sound like the road to a second straight graded stakes win over 1 1/2 miles on turf in the Grade 3, $250,000 Louisville Stakes on Saturday night at Churchill Downs?
Maybe.
While the stars aren’t likely to align as favorably for Utah Beach, they might not have to if, as trainer Ignacio Correas believes, Utah Beach’s win in the Elkhorn wasn’t merely the product of good fortune. At age 5, Utah Beach, a son of English Channel, whose horses aren’t usually at all precocious, is just hitting his stride.
“I think that he’s a Keeneland lover, but I also think he has hit a new level,” Correas said. “He’s getting better with age, no doubt about it.”
The nine-horse Louisville has plenty of fully mature participants: Only Rock’n a Halo, a 4-year-old, is younger than 5, and Sugoi, who won this race a year ago, is an 8-year-old.
Vincent Cheminaud, who gets a return call on Utah Beach, did give his mount a very good Elkhorn ride, keeping the horse within striking range of a tepid pace while saving ground before switching out to tackle Limited Liability. Correas harbors some concern that Utah Beach doesn’t love the Churchill grass course, but also notes he came out of his fifth-place finish in the 2024 Louisville with a case of the thumps.
The two horses Cherie DeVaux ran in the Elkhorn, Rebel Red and Missed the Cut, did not have good trips at all. Missed the Cut was caught three to four wide with no cover on all three turns, pulling harder than ideal and checking in an even sixth. Rebel Red, already well behind the slow tempo, found himself blocked at the half-mile pole and into the third turn. He finished fastest in the race – lugging in while his jockey attempted to get Rebel Red to switch leads – but that only was good enough for fourth. Rebel Red lost his left eye last summer at Saratoga, but DeVaux said the horse’s unwillingness to switch his leads and lug in dates to his days with two eyes.
“Sometimes he switches, sometimes he doesn’t. The horse is lightly raced, and I think he’s continuing to improve,” DeVaux said.
Six-year-old Missed the Cut went to England last summer and took a drubbing in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. His first start after that trip, and first for DeVaux, came in the March 1 Mac Diarmida, where Missed the Cut was checked hard into the first of three turns, then lacked room while finishing well in the homestretch. DeVaux said jockey Tyler Gaffalione got off the horse impressed with the performance. Brian Hernandez Jr. rides for the first time Saturday night, and the level Missed the Cut hit during the first part of 2024 in California wins the Louisville.
“The horse has every right to be a good horse. I’m drawing a line through the Keeneland race,” DeVaux said.
Sugoi led nearly all the way winning last year’s Louisville, but this time around figures to press the pace of rail-drawn Idratherbeblessed. Two pace players, and several lengths behind them Utah Beach, going for two in a row.
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