Warrior's Charge will winging from rail in 13-horse Ack Ack

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Florent Geroux wouldn’t mind ending the September meet at Churchill Downs as well as he started it.

Geroux was a riding sensation when Churchill opened early this month with Kentucky Derby week. The 34-year-old French native won seven races, including four graded stakes highlighted by his Kentucky Oaks upset aboard Shedaresthedevil.

“It was great,” Geroux said. “Different, because of no spectators, but still it was a very good week for us.”

Now comes the back end of the 14-day meet, and Geroux could find himself back on familiar ground in the winner’s circle. Warrior’s Charge – his mount in the final stakes of the meet, the Grade 3, $100,000 Ack Ack on Saturday – figures as strictly the horse to catch after breaking from post 1 in a field of 13 older horses going a mile out of the Longfield Avenue chute.

“He’s quick leaving there, so hopefully the one hole shouldn’t be a problem,” said Geroux, who has ridden Warrior’s Charge in seven of his 11 starts.

Strategy-wise, “we won’t change anything because of the post. We’ll just go forward from the break. I’m not sure if anybody will be in front of me, but if they are, they’re going to have to go fast.”

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Warrior’s Charge, trained by Brad Cox, has won five of his last eight starts, all of them when seizing early command. After finishing a respectable fourth in the Grade 1 Met Mile on July 4, the 4-year-old Munnings colt won his latest, the Aug. 22 Iselin at Monmouth Park, via the disqualification of Pirate’s Punch, who further validated the quality of the Iselin by wheeling back to dominate the Grade 3 Salvator Mile last Sunday.

Cox said he is looking to use the Ack Ack as a springboard to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, to be run around two turns Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

“This is a pretty competitive field, but we ought to do well going the one-turn mile,” Cox said.

Perhaps the top challengers in a crowded group are Mr. Money and Everfast.

Mr. Money (post 5, Gabriel Saez) has proven quite the enigma, having failed to finish any better than fourth in four 2020 starts after knocking out more than $1.1 million last year at 3. Trainer Bret Calhoun believes the colt is primed to return to form Saturday.

“For a number of reasons, we really are looking for a much better showing,” Calhoun said.

Everfast (post 13, Julien Leparoux), the 2019 Preakness runner-up, has kept elite company for much of his career and has hinted in recent starts that he’s ready to blossom as a miler type, such as in a two-back allowance victory at Saratoga.

Fringe possibilities include Bourbon Calling, Proverb, and Ebben, all of them sharp last-out winners. The balance of the lineup is American Anthem, Pioneer Spirit, Alkhaatam, Bankit, Thirstforlife, Dinar, and Home Base.

The Ack Ack, the ninth of 10 Saturday races, honors the Charlie Whittingham trainee who in 1971 was voted the first-ever Horse of the Year award. It was first run in 1991, when Seven Spades prevailed for the late trainer Neil Huffman. One of the more memorable recent renewals came in 2016, when Tom’s Ready rallied to win for Dallas Stewart while the 3-10 favorite, Runhappy, faded to fourth.

First post Saturday is 12:45 p.m. Eastern, with the Ack Ack set for 4:53 p.m. Directly preceding the feature is an outstanding third-level allowance (race 8, 4:21) that drew a well-matched field of 10 fillies and mares also going a mile for an $81,000 purse.

Perfect late summer weather is in the forecast. The first two races will be shown on FS1, with the last eight, including the Ack Ack, moving over to FS2.

Saturday is the penultimate day of the September meet. Sunday is closing day, with pool disbursements mandatory for all wagers. The Kentucky circuit then goes dark for four days before Keeneland begins its 17-day fall meet Friday.