Valiant City ready for more October success
STICKNEY, Ill. – Valiant City won a dirt-route allowance race at Hawthorne Racecourse last October that he used as a springboard to the Hawthorne Gold Cup. There is no Gold Cup this year – the entire Hawthorne stakes schedule was dropped due to financial issues – but Valiant City is ready to reprise his October success of one year ago.
Valiant City will start as the favorite Wednesday in the featured fourth race, the highest-class test so far at this fall-winter meet. The entire eight-race card, which includes two other allowance races, is surprisingly strong. First post is 2:20 p.m. Central.
One of seven entered to run 1 1/16 miles in a race with three allowance conditions and a $65,000 claiming option, Valiant City hails from the barn of trainer Scott Becker. Owner Bill Stiritz and Becker, his private trainer, have started strong here, with five winners from 15 runners after seven racing days.
Valiant City is the 5-2 morning-line favorite but figures to be bet lower. Off from mid-July to mid-September, he won at a similar class level last out at Churchill Downs in a seven-furlong race that was short of his best trip. Valiant City is 3-1-1 from seven Hawthorne dirt starts. He faded to finish a distant fifth in the Gold Cup but is plenty capable against allowance types.
Big Tom Prado enters in strong form, but his best has come on turf, and he has raced only once on dirt. That probably leaves two Louie Roussel horses, Treasury Bill and Only in America, as the most likely exacta partner for Valiant City since Francois, who once could stay with horses at this class, appears to have declined during a busy 2016 campaign.
Race 7, a second-level turf-route allowance with a $40,000 claiming option, looks competitive, though Lewis Vale could be difficult to catch if he slips clear on an easy lead, as seems possible.
But Lewis Vale probably will be bet below fair value and is not the horse he was one year ago, leaving Romeo Lima as a potentially fair-priced winner. The 4-year-old, another Roussel charge, found his best form over the summer at Arlington and rallied well to barely miss at this class level in his most recent start. He appears to have turned in good works for this start, his first since Sept. 3.
◗ Six Gun Salute, who won his second career start Saturday at Hawthorne, might be a 2-year-old worth watching. By Colonel John, the half-brother to Dubai World Cup winner Well Armed debuted on Presque Isle Downs’s Tapeta surface and finished third a month ago, but in Saturday’s third race, he turned in a long, sustained rally after breaking poorly and racing from well behind the early leader and won by a head.
The runner-up, pacesetting Vinnardini, finished more than 13 lengths ahead of the third-place horse, and Six Gun Salute’s six-furlong time of 1:10.67 produced a 69 Beyer Speed Figure.