Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Lots on the line in first stakes
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first four stakes of the September meet at Churchill Downs will conclude a terrific 11-race Saturday card that track officials have designed as an alluring lead-in for locals.
Two of the stakes, the Pocahontas and Iroquois for 2-yearolds, carry rewards far beyond their purses: They’re Win and You’re In events toward the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup races for the divisions at Churchill, as well as the first qualifyingpoints races toward the 2019 Kentucky Derby and Oaks.
The stakes are packaged as the late pick four (races 8-11) on a card that begins at 12:45 p.m. Eastern and is scheduled to end at 5:57, or in ample time for fans and alumni of Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville to make the 7:30 kickoff for their rivalry football game at Cardinal Stadium just up Central Ave.
In reverse order, here’s a quick rundown of those Saturday stakes: Grade 2, $200,000 Pocahontas (race 11): Serengeti Empress, a 13 1/2-length winner of the Ellis Debutante, was assigned post 1 in a 1 1/16mile race that marks her twoturn debut. Among the 11 fillies opposing her are Love My Honey, Two Dozen Roses, and It Justhitthe Wire, all in from Saratoga, and Splashy Kisses, in from Del Mar for Doug O’Neill. Grade 3, $150,000 Iroquois
(race 10): Steve Asmussen might have the top two wagering choices among a field of 12 in this 1 1/16-mile race in the uncoupled duo of Tight Ten, runner-up in the Saratoga Special, and Tobacco Road, winner of the Ellis Juvenile. Grade 3, $100,000 Locust
Grove (race 9): Blue Prize, winner of the Grade 2 Falls City last fall and the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis in June, figures as a solid favorite over eight other fillies and mares in this 1 1/16-mile race.
$100,000 Open Mind (race
8): Vertical Oak, Miss Kentucky, and Astrollinthepark are the top contenders in a field of seven fillies and mares in this sixfurlong race.
After Saturday, five stakes will remain at the 11-day September meet, with the final four set for the Sept. 29 Downs After Dark card. Foremost among those is the Grade 3, $200,000 Lukas Classic, which will serve as the final Breeders’ Cup prep for Mind Your Biscuits, who was scheduled to arrive here early Thursday from New York.
‘Finley’ straight to BC
Finley’sluckycharm, who wasn’t even nominated to the Open Mind, will make her next start in the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint after getting a brief freshening in the aftermath of a seventh-place finish in the Grade 1 Ballerina on Aug. 25 at Saratoga, said trainer Bret Calhoun.
“She’s proven to us this year that she’s not as effective when we run back too quick,” said Calhoun, who won the 2010 BC Filly-Mare Sprint at Churchill with Dubai Majesty. “I backed off on her after the Ballerina. She came into that race training good and breezing good, but deep down I could tell her energy level just wasn’t quite where it should be. I really think the 10 weeks between races is the best way to go with her. I’ll have her back breezing in the next week or so.”
Finley’sluckycharm, a 5-yearold Twirling Candy mare, has won 11 of 18 career starts and $918,068 while being particularly effective at Churchill, where she has gone a remarkable 6 for 7.
Meanwhile, Calhoun also bypassed the Open Mind with 3-year-old Classy Act, who instead will be pointed to the Oct. 20 Raven Run at Keeneland.
Hough back in action
Serious racing fans probably did a double-take when they saw Stanley Hough listed as the trainer of Barry Lee in the featured ninth race Friday at Churchill. The last starter for Hough was in April 2012 at Aqueduct.
Hough explained that he is part of the ongoing reconfiguration of racing operations at Sagamore Farm as overseen by president Hunter Rankin. Sagamore, the legendary Maryland breeding and racing farm owned by Under Armour tycoon Kevin Plank, still will maintain a presence with trainer Horacio de Paz in Maryland.
“I’ll have about 15 to 20 horses here through the end of November, then go to Palm Meadows (in Florida) for the winter,” said Hough.
Hough, 70, raced mostly in Florida and New York during an outstanding training career that began in 1969. His lifetime victory total stands at 2,166, and his numerous feats include winning the 1982 Japan Cup with Half Iced and being one of the first inductees into the Calder Hall of Fame in 1996.
Hough was stabled at Churchill in the late 1990s and early 2000s when training mostly for the late Bob “Country” Roberts. From 1976 to 2012, his horses won more than 140 stakes.
Mena, Court near returns
Jockeys Miguel Mena and Jon Court are nearing returns to the saddle following layoffs of varying length forced by injury.
Mena, 31, is probably still a couple of weeks away from riding races but recently began working horses at Churchill in the morning, including a five-furlong breeze Monday in 1:00.20 on the standout 3-year-old Bravazo for trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Mena has undergone months of intense rehabilitation since suffering a shattered heel and fractured ankle in a March 15 spill at Fair Grounds.
Court, 57, was expected back as early as Sunday after having been sidelined since breaking his collarbone in a motorcycle accident in late June.