Walsh moves Santin to dirt in Blame Stakes
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Rattle N Roll and Santin stand out in the field for Saturday’s Grade 3, $225,000 Blame Stakes as Grade 1-winning millionaires. But while they have that in common, they converge in this race from different paths this year. Rattle N Roll, off back-to-back wins, is looking just to keep rolling. Santin, off back-to-back unplaced efforts, is trying something new.
The two are part of a cast of eight for the Blame, designated as the feature among six stakes on “Stephen Foster Preview Day” on Saturday at Churchill Downs. The Blame is designed as the local prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster on July 1, a race whose hefty rewards include an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic this November at Santa Anita. The other five stakes on the Saturday program each also correspond to a race on the Foster’s undercard. The other dirt stakes on Saturday are the Grade 3, $225,000 Shawnee, essentially a sister race to the Blame, in which Grade 1 winner Pauline’s Pearl looks to recapture her best form against four other graded stakes winners; and the $225,000 Aristides, in which Bango tries to become one of the winningest horses in Churchill Downs history while meeting Grade/Group 1-winning sprinters Gunite and Sibelius. The card also features a trio of turf stakes in the Grade 3, $225,000 Arlington for older horses, the Grade 3, $225,000 Regret for 3-year-old fillies, and the $225,000 Audubon for 3-year-olds.
But it’s the Blame that Santin, a Godolphin homebred trained by Brendan Walsh, will opt for rather than the Arlington. He has never raced on dirt, but was a multiple Grade 1 winner on the Churchill turf last year, taking the Old Forester Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard and the Arlington Million in August.
Santin made his 2023 debut in the Kentucky Cup Classic on Turfway’s Tapeta, a race in which he stumbled badly at the start, improved his position, and ultimately finished fourth. Returning to his favorite course to defend his win in the Old Forester Turf Classic, Santin raced in second behind an honest pace, but was no match in the lane, backing off to fifth.
“It’s probably a good time to try something new,” Walsh allowed. “He’s a horse that, sometimes, a little change in scenery and stuff helps him.”
Santin, who drew post 5 with Tyler Gaffalione in the irons, works regularly on the dirt at Churchill Downs and has posted two breezes there since the Turf Classic. The familiarity of the track was one deciding factor.
“He works pretty good on the dirt, and we’ve always kind of had it in our minds to try it at some point,” Walsh said. “This is in his backyard, and it seems as good a time to try it as any. . . . It would open a big door for him if it did work.”
While Churchill also is Rattle N Roll’s home base with Kenny McPeek, his six stakes wins, highlighted by the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity as a 2-year-old, have come on five different tracks.
After starting this year by finishing fourth in the Grade 2 New Orleans Classic, Rattle N Roll won the Grade 3 Ben Ali on April 22 at Keeneland and the Grade 3 Pimlico Special on May 19. He has earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures in all three outings.
Rattle N Roll drew the rail under regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. and is likely to come from off the pace. How fast that pace is looms a question. Pioneer of Medina, winner of the Grade 3 Mineshaft earlier this year, could take initiative up front if others don’t; he led early in the Ben Ali before finishing third. He is drawn in post 7 under Luis Saez and would have to clear the field to avoid running wide into the first turn of the 1 1/8-mile race. Barber Road, second in the 2022 Arkansas Derby, has shown improved efforts recently when racing closer to the pace. He got back in the winner’s circle in April, when he took a Keeneland allowance.
The other 2023 graded winner in the field is Happy American, who won the Grade 3 Louisiana in January but has been off the board in three outings since. Masqueparade, winner of the Grade 3 Ohio Derby in 2021, was sixth in the Knicks Go on the Derby undercard off a long layoff. Call Me Fast, second in the Ben Ali, and Cooke Creek complete the field.
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