Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
KEENELAND McCraken set to face elders for first time in Fayette
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Threeyear-olds begin merging into the Thoroughbred mainstream around this time of year, and trainer Ian Wilkes is as interested as anyone else to see how McCraken will match up when facing older horses for the first time.
“We’ll find out soon, huh?” Wilkes said.
A revealing test will come next Saturday at Keeneland, where McCraken is expected to line up against Neolithic, Honorable Duty, and The Player in a terrific 60th running of the closing-day feature, the Grade 2 Fayette Stakes.
McCraken had his fifth and most serious workout since a seventh-place finish in the Aug. 26 Travers when going six furlongs in 1:14.60 on Thursday at his Churchill Downs base with regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. aboard. Wilkes said a shorter work likely will come “early in the week” as a final tuneup.
“Those are some very nice horses he’ll be in against,” said Wilkes, who trains McCraken for Whitham Thoroughbreds. “There are no pushovers. This is Keeneland. It’s not easy.”
Wilkes said he considered other races for McCraken, but the timing of the $200,000 Fayette is ideal toward his year-end goal, the Grade 1 Clark Handicap on Nov. 24 at Churchill.
“I’m very happy with the horse right now,” he said. “He’ll have these two races, and then we’ll regroup for hopefully a big 4-year-old season.”
Neolithic, trained by Todd Pletcher, had his final race tune-up Thursday when going a half-mile in 48.80 seconds over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga. He could be a slight favorite in the 1 1/8-mile Fayette after having faced Gun Runner and/or Arrogate in three of his last four starts.
Honorable Duty, winner of three graded stakes this year, was scheduled to have his final prerace breeze Saturday at Keeneland. The Player, second to Awesome Slew in the Sept. 30 Ack Ack at Churchill, was scheduled to work this weekend at Churchill. Entries for Saturday will be drawn Wednesday.
Romans’s juveniles aim high
The next six weeks could be big ones for trainer Dale Romans. His two Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hopefuls, Free Drop Billy and Hollywood Star, were flown to California on Monday, while some of his other stable stars could be in action at the 21-day Churchill Downs fall meet.
Dak Attack, who was forced to miss the BC Juvenile because of a sore shin, is back in light training and is an outside possibility for the Nov. 25 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Romans said.
“If we can’t make that, we’ll probably try to run him in December in Oklahoma,” he said, referring to the Dec. 17 Springboard Mile at Remington Park.
Romans said two other 2-yearolds, Promises Fulfilled and Tiz Mischief, also are prime candidates for the Kentucky Jockey Club.
J Boys Echo, unraced since finishing a distant ninth in the Belmont Stakes in June, recently had his third breeze since returning from a freshening and could show up in a race at the Churchill meet. The 3-year-old colt is still eligible for a second-level allowance.
Petrov to Steel Valley Sprint
Trainer Ron Moquett said Petrov will be pointed to the $200,000 Steel Valley Sprint on Nov. 20 at Mahoning Valley in Ohio after keeping his nonstakes record perfect with a onelength victory in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance here Wednesday.
Petrov is winless in eight stakes tries – although he was second, third, or fourth in six of them – while having won his other three career starts. The six-furlong Steel Valley is restricted to 3-year-olds.
Solid Sunday undercard
Besides the Grade 3 Dowager, the Sunday card at Keeneland offers three allowances, including bookends of the nine-race program.
Race 1 drew six sprinters for a $75,000 purse, and all but one of them is a stakes winner. Race 9 is a second-level, seven-furlong race with a $69,000 purse that drew a well-matched field of nine. The remaining allowance (race 6) got an oversubscribed field of 2-year-old fillies going a mile on turf for a $67,000 purse.