Zulu Alpha favored to score repeat win in Kentucky Turf Cup

Zulu Alpha probably hadn’t yet cooled out after winning the Kentucky Turf Cup last September when owner Michael Hui put a big red circle around a listing of the 2020 running at Kentucky Downs.

The yearlong wait ends Saturday for Hui and Zulu Alpha when the 7-year-old Street Cry gelding comes the obvious one to beat in the showcase event of the Runhappy meet at Kentucky Downs, the Grade 3, $1 million Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup. The Turf Cup is one of five straight stakes that culminate the richest program of the six-day meet at the spectator-free turf-only track in south-central Kentucky.

“I’ve got to say he’s coming into the race this year even better than last, because he’s had such a great year,” said Hui, who claimed Zulu Alpha for $80,000 – from the race sponsor, Calumet, coincidentally enough – in September 2018. Zulu Alpha has gone on to win seven graded turf stakes, most notably the Grade 1 Pegasus World Turf Cup in January.

Hui (pronounced “Hoy”) said trainer Mike Maker told him this week that Zulu Alpha has “never been better.”

“He expects him to have his usual performance where he always shows up,” Hui said. “He loves Kentucky Downs.”

Zulu Alpha enters here off a hard-earned score in the July 12 Elkhorn at Keeneland and is listed as the 7-5 morning-line favorite in an oversubscribed field of older horses. Tyler Gaffalione will get a leg up from Maker on Zulu Alpha, who breaks from post 10.

Among the top threats to Zulu Alpha is his familiar rival Arklow (post 5, Florent Geroux), winner of the 2018 Turf Cup for Donegal Racing and partners and trainer Brad Cox.

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Remarkably, this marks the 10th meeting between Zulu Alpha and Arklow. At first, Arklow had the edge, but Zulu Alpha now has finished ahead of him in five of their nine prior meetings, most recently in the Elkhorn. Arklow checked in fourth in the Elkhorn for his fifth straight loss since he won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic last October at Belmont Park.

Arklow will be equipped with blinkers for the first time in his 29-race career as Cox looks to shake the 6-year-old out of his mild slump. At his peak, Arklow belongs among the top longer-event turf horses on the continent.

“Hopefully the blinkers can get him more involved in the race the early part,” said Cox, whose red-hot stable won three major stakes last weekend at his home track of Churchill Downs, including the Kentucky Oaks with Shedaresthedevil. “He’s been taking himself too far out of his races, so we’ve trained him in them some and he’s been wearing them in his breezes. We all know how he can close. Hopefully this picks his head up.”

Arklow is the 9-2 second choice on the track line, composed by Byron King.

Fringe players in this 29th Turf Cup include Red Knight (post 2, Luis Saez), who figures sharp off a seven-month-plus layoff for Bill Mott; Grand Journey (post 3, Irad Ortiz Jr.), a second Maker starter; Postulation (post 6, Julien Leparoux), the Elkhorn runner-up at 35-1 and likely a pace factor once again; He’s No Lemon (post 7, Javier Castellano), a last-out Saratoga allowance winner for Graham Motion; and Hierarchy (post 12, Corey Lanerie), a fast-closing runner-up in a designated Aug. 2 prep for this at Ellis Park.

In all, 16 are entered but only as many as 12 can start. The race starts at the three-sixteenths pole midway up the home stretch, with the field proceeding to travel one full circuit of the irregularly shaped, undulating 1 5/16-mile oval.

The Turf Cup goes as the 10th of 11 races on a card that starts at 12:15 p.m. Central and ends with the four other stakes, all worth at least $500,000, that make up the 50-cent late pick five (races 7-11). Post time for the feature is 5:04 p.m. TVG will provide extensive televised coverage of the day.

With both the New York and Southern California circuit dark this weekend, a track-record handle on this card can be expected. The all-time Kentucky Downs record of $11,322,270 was set last year on a 10-race Turf Cup card.

Sunshine and a high of 88 are in the forecast for the Franklin, Ky., area.

Purses for most Kentucky Downs races include sizable bonuses restricted to Kentucky-breds registered to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. For instance, the Turf Cup purse includes $450,000 in KTDF bonuses. Nine of the 12 in the main body are eligible for the bonuses, including Zulu Alpha and Arklow.

Maker, easily the leading trainer in track history, has won four of the last five runnings of the Turf Cup, starting with Da Big Hoss (2105-16) and Oscar Nominated (2017).