Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Rushing Fall, Copper Town have no Breeders’ Cup plans
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Not every horse in terrific form at this time of year is headed to the Breeders’ Cup.
Rushing Fall and Copper Town, both eye-catching winners Saturday at Keeneland as odds-on favorites under Javier Castellano, are good examples.
Rushing Fall earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure as a controlling winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup a few hours after Copper Town made a splashy return with a fivelength allowance triumph, earning a 101 Beyer.
Trainer Chad Brown said that Rushing Fall, whose only loss in seven career starts came in the Edgewood Stakes in May at Churchill Downs, might race one more time this year, in the Grade 1 Matriarch on Dec. 2 at Del Mar, or will be shut down to point to a 4-yearold campaign and winter in Florida. A decision likely is forthcoming this week.
Brown said the longer 1 3/8-mile distance of the BC Filly and Mare Turf or having to face males in the BC Mile convinced him and owner Bob Edwards of eFive Racing Thororoughbreds to forgo the Breeders’ Cup and make the QE II their primary fall goal.
“The year didn’t go exactly as planned,” Brown said. “The one defeat at Churchill, missing the Belmont Oaks, missing the Lake George. Bob and I huddled up and said let’s work backward from the QE II.”
Copper Town, trained by Todd Pletcher, was returning from a layoff of a little more than a year and making just his fourth start in winning a 6 1/2-furlong allowance in a swift 1:15.91. The 4-year-old Speightstown colt was away a little slowly, then rated kindly for Castellano and gradually made up lost ground.
“He’s a special horse,” Castellano said. “It was probably a blessing I missed the break a little bit. I had to go a little wide, but he relaxed very nice and was much the best. I think you will see him in the bigger races.”
Copper Town is owned by most of the partners who campaigned Justify during his successful Triple Crown run this spring, including WinStar Farm, whose president, Elliott Walden, said the Grade 1 Cigar Mile on Dec. 1 at Aqueduct is a logical next spot for Copper Town. The lengthy layoff from his previous start in October 2017 was caused by a series of unlucky events, Walden said.
“He had a spider bite and [it] swelled up in his hind end,” he said. “He had like three weeks off, and then when he had the time off he was a little jammed up coming back and we found him with a little bone bruising. It was one little thing after another.”
Lanerie ends win skid
Two weeks of frustration came pouring out of Corey Lanerie as he gave an enthusiastic wave of his whip after crossing under the wire a winner in the seventh race at Keeneland on Sunday.
“Acting crazy,” Lanerie said early Monday with a laugh.
It was only a maiden race, but winning by four lengths aboard a 2-year-old filly named Martian felt great. It snapped an 0-for-46 streak for Lanerie, who has grown very accustomed to winning with regularity on this circuit. The triumph was the first for Lanerie since he ended the September meet at Churchill on Sept. 30 with a three-win day and yet another riding title at the Louisville track.
“You start thinking you might be doing something wrong,” said Lanerie, who enters Wednesday action with 4,461 career wins. “But the reality is, that’s just the way this game is. A tough streak like that is just going to happen sometimes.
“Maybe now things will start falling into place. Sometimes you do nothing wrong – and even when you do something wrong, it ends up right.”
Handle up 20 percent
With the 17-day fall meet hitting its midpoint Wednesday, all-sources handle on Keeneland racing has averaged $9,868,668 per card, up 20 percent over last fall. Gross wagering totaled more than $78.9 million, up substantially over the numbers from last fall ($65.6 million gross for an average of nearly $8.2 million).
Granted, wagering was down nearly 9 percent for the entirety of the 2017 Keeneland fall meet in comparison to 2016, when a loosely organized boycott was formed as a result of increased takeout rates. Those higher takeouts were rescinded before the 2018 spring meet.
Bob Elliston, vice president of racing and sales at Keeneland, said Monday, “The horsemen have filled the entry box with exceptionally talented, deep fields, and handicappers have responded through our wagering pools, in many cases, at record levels.”
Indeed, wagering is on pace to break the fall meet records for gross ($143 million) and average ($8.4 million) handle, both set in 2013.
Tie atop rider standings
There’s a logjam atop the Keeneland jockey standings with eight of 17 programs in the books. Seven riders are within two wins of the top rung, shared by Jose Ortiz and apprentice Edgar Morales (six wins each). Julien Leparoux is next with five wins, followed by four more jockeys with four wins and six jockeys with three wins.
Todd Pletcher, with Ginny DePasquale deputizing, has the lead atop the trainer standings with six wins, two ahead of Brad Cox.
◗ One graded stakes will be run on each of the last four cards this week. Those races are the Grade 3 Sycamore on Thursday, the Grade 3 Valley View on Friday, the Grade 2 Raven Run on Saturday, and the Grade 3 Dowager on Sunday.