Wise Dan tops three turf stakes on Foster undercard

Between them, Somelikeithotbrown, Field Pass, Ride a Comet, and Spooky Channel have earned more than $2.4 million while winning 19 stakes, 11 of those graded, around North America. That quartet, along with the streaking Set Piece, form half of a solid field of 10 for the Grade 2, $300,000 Wise Dan Stakes on Saturday at Churchill Downs.

The Wise Dan is one of three turf stakes on closing day at Churchill. The card also includes a pair of $150,000 events for 3-year-olds, the War Chant Stakes and the Tepin Stakes for fillies.

Of the four multiple graded winners in the field, Somelikeithotbrown comes in with the best recent form. He earned his fifth career stakes win in emphatic fashion last month in the Grade 2 Dinner Party on the Preakness Stakes undercard in a Pimlico course-record time of 1:40.09 for the 1 1/16 miles.

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Somelikeithotbrown has shown an affinity for Churchill Downs in the past, finishing third, beaten less than a length, in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf for Mike Maker. Jockey Jose Ortiz, aboard Somelikeithotbrown that day, got back aboard for the first time in the Dinner Party, and rides again on Saturday. Ortiz has mounts in all seven stakes on Saturday at Churchill, including heavy favorites Maxfield in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster and Letruska in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis.

Maker also saddles Field Pass, who has form on this course, having won last year’s Audubon Stakes. The colt has made his two starts this year at the Grade 1 level, finishing fourth in the Maker’s Mark Mile at Keeneland and eighth in the Man o’ War at Belmont.

Ride a Comet, winner of the Grade 3 Tropical Turf Stakes in January at Gulfstream, is also emerging from Grade 1 company for Mark Casse. After finishing a solid second in the Maker’s Mile, he was ninth in the Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill.

Spooky Channel also opened this year with a graded win, taking the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston. He’s unplaced in two graded outings since, most recently finishing eighth in the Grade 3 Louisville at Churchill going 1 1/2 miles.

Set Piece is looking for his first graded stakes win after winning four of his six most recent outings for Brad Cox, with those victories all coming on synthetic at Turfway Park and turf at Churchill. The gelding is coming off back-to-back overnight stakes wins at Churchill, taking the Opening Verse on April 29 and the Douglas Park on May 29.

Hierarchy, Kentucky Ghost, and Super Sol all come into the Wise Dan off allowance-level wins at Churchill. In Love was second by a neck to Kentucky Ghost in that most recent outing.

War Chant

Earlier on the card, Helium moves to turf for the War Chant after several solid starts on the dirt for Casse. The colt won his first two starts on synthetic last year at Woodbine, including the Display Stakes. He opened this season by winning the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby in his first start on dirt, then crossed the line a creditable eighth in the Kentucky Derby in his second start off the layoff. Most recently, he was third after setting the pace in the Grade 3 Matt Winn.

Royal Prince won a pair of minor stakes on the Fair Grounds turf for Cox, then was sixth in the Grade 2 American Turf. He was third in the Audubon, also on this course, last out.

Tepin

Unlike the War Chant, where Helium looms large as the lone graded stakes winner in the field, the Tepin, which caps the card, is well matched, with several stakes-seasoned fillies, including Adventuring.

The filly finally gets a chance to run on the turf for Cox. After making her first three starts in off-the-turf events, including a maiden victory, she won the Bourbonette Oaks on Turfway’s synthetic. She then was eighth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan on dirt at Pimlico.

Barista was second in the Grade 2 Edgewood on the Kentucky Oaks undercard, while Arm Candy was third in the Hilltop Stakes on Preakness weekend. Invincible Gal owns four stakes placings on the turf, including a second by a neck in the Grade 3 Soaring Softly last out at Belmont. Tobys Heart is a multiple stakes-winning sprinter, New Boss is a stakes winner at a mile, and Navratilova is stakes-placed in two turf sprints this year.