Weather may prompt surface switch

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A weather roller-coaster during the penultimate week of the 21-day fall meet at Churchill Downs will end Sunday with frigid conditions for a 10-race card that includes three allowances.

Temperatures in the mid-50s Friday were expected to plummet into the 20s by Saturday night and into Sunday, with a daytime high of just 41 being forecast for Sunday. Following the likelihood of rain and strong winds Saturday, it’s questionable whether Churchill officials will opt to run the two Sunday turf races as scheduled, especially with such important races as the Grade 3 River City and Grade 2 Mrs. Revere still to be run here next week over a course that has taken a pounding this fall.

The richest of a Sunday allowance trio is a $72,000 dash scheduled for turf, race 4, and if it stays intact, it would be a good one. Pretty Perfection, a two-time stakes winner earlier this year on the Gulfstream Park turf, looms a major player either on turf or dirt, especially in light of the way the 5-yearold mare romped over the main track at Parx Racing last month for trainer Kelly Breen. Justa Lady and Clairenation, both entered off sharp recent efforts over the Keeneland turf, also figure as contenders in an oversubscribed field of fillies and mares.

Fillies and mares will go postward in race 3, a $62,000 first-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles. Awestruck, a fast-closing second at Keeneland in her last start, is part of a G. Watts Humphrey-owned stable coupling that could settle in as a lukewarm favorite in a wellmatched lineup of eight.

The final allowance, a $65,000 second-level race at 6 1/2 furlongs, will be run under the lights as race 9. All but three of the 12 entrants are in for an optional $62,500 tag, but one who isn’t is Excitations, a 3-year-old who will be adding blinkers after finishing second to the highly regarded Petrov at Keeneland in his most recent appearance. Al Stall Jr. trains Excitations for the 200-member Fair Grounds Racing Club.

First post is 1 p.m. Eastern. After Sunday, Churchill goes dark for two days before the final five-day stretch of the meet begins Wednesday. Closing day is next Sunday, Nov. 26.