DiVito: Mud shouldn’t bother Recount

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Just like a week ago, the weather folks are calling for rain and chill at Churchill Downs on Friday. And that’s okay with Jimmy DiVito, whose stable star, Recount, will be in action.

“He’s 2 for 2 over this track, and I really feel like he’ll handle the mud, if that’s what it comes to,” said DiVito.

Recount, an Illinois-bred 5-year-old gelding, is entered in the first of three allowances on a nine-race Friday card that gets under way at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. He’ll be favored in the fourth race (post 2:13), a $57,000 classified allowance for older horses at six furlongs.

“He’s training good and been running good this year,” said DiVito, “but that’s pretty much been the case with him all along.”

Recount has won 11 of 27 starts and banked $543,907 for Doubledown Stables Inc. Last fall at Churchill, he won back-to-back sprints, ending with the Bet On Sunshine, one of his eight stakes wins.

Chris Landeros is named to ride Recount.

Black Bear, entered for a $100,000 claiming option by trainer Randy Morse, looks like a threat, along with Wilbo and Bayerd.

The two other allowances come a bit later. They’re both $51,000, first-level races, with race 7 for fillies and mares scheduled for five furlongs on the turf and race 8 for 3-yearolds and up going a mile on the main track.

Gagaoveryou, very popular with Fair Grounds bettors over the winter, looks like the horse to beat in race 7 (3:47), assuming it stays on grass. The 6-year-old mare was even-money in all three starts in New Orleans while coming close to exhausting this condition, and there’s no reason to think she won’t come heavily backed once again.

If the race has to be moved to the main track, then several others who have done their best work on dirt will stand better chances – A Dixie Twister, Fiesta, and Katalust.

In race 8 (4:19), Big Red Rocket returns off a second for this same condition as an 8-5 favorite at Keeneland for trainer Al Stall Jr. The 4-year-old Tapit colt will have Corey Lanerie aboard when he breaks from the favorable outside post in a field of 10.