Midnight Bourbon will stick with series; Risen Star next

Midnight Bourbon looked good Sunday following his Jan. 16 win in the Grade 2, $200,000 Lecomte Stakes, and his connections think there’s reason to hope he can be even better in stakes races the next couple months at Fair Grounds.

Midnight Bourbon, racing for the first time since Oct. 10 while making his two-turn debut, won the Lecomte, wire to wire, by one length. He ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.41, a raw time that produced a 91 Beyer Speed Figure, a career best by 11 points. Joe Talamo was a late replacement aboard Midnight Bourbon, pressed into service when Ricardo Santana Jr. took ill, Asmussen said, and was unable to ride his scheduled mounts Saturday.

Midnight Bourbon as of Sunday appeared to have come out of the Lecomte in good shape, Asmussen said, after earning 10 qualifying points for Churchill Downs’s Road to the Kentucky Derby that determines the Derby field. He now has 16 points. Plans call for Midnight Bourbon to go through Fair Grounds’s series of 3-year-old dirt route stakes, which continues with the Risen Star on Feb. 13 and the Louisiana Derby on March 20. Fair Grounds, starting last season, lengthened all three of its races in this division, with the Risen Star contested at 1 1/8 miles and the Louisiana Derby at 1 3/16 miles. Asmussen thinks that will suit Midnight Bourbon.

“He’s a beautiful mover, a big, gorgeous horse that travels really well. He’s got a high cruising speed, and I don’t think he’ll have any trouble running longer,” Asmussen said.

Midnight Bourbon, owned by Ron Winchell’s Winchell Thoroughbreds, is by Tiznow and out of Catch the Moon, by Malibu Moon. Catch the Moon has gotten four foals to race – Midnight Bourbon, Pirate’s Punch, Girvin, and Cocked and Loaded – and all have won graded stakes.

Charlie’s Penny shines bright

Chris Block didn’t bring Charlie’s Penny to Fair Grounds last fall looking to stretch the filly out. Things just turned in that direction, as a matter of course, and led to Charlie’s Penny winning the $150,000 Silverbulletday on Saturday.

Charlie’s Penny took command of the Silverbulletday in upper stretch and drew away to win by 3 1/4 lengths, running a mile and 70 yards in 1:43.80, which was good for an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.

Charlie’s Penny won her debut this past summer at Arlington over five furlongs and stuck to sprints through her four-start 2-year-old campaign, which concluded with a second-place finish Dec. 19 at Fair Grounds in the sixfurlong Letellier Stakes. It was only after that race Block began seriously considering trying a route with the Bob Lothenbach homebred, a daughter of Race Day and the Warrior’s Reward mare Sweet Lorraine.

“I had in my mind that she probably was a sprinter,” Block said. “Out of her last race, I liked the way she finished the last eighth, and we really didn’t have anywhere else to go right now, so we decided to give it a shot around two turns. This race being a mile-seventy, seemed like it could help her. She’s very ratable.”

Charlie’s Penny paddles with her left front leg, and Block wondered if her “peculiar stride” might keep her from staying a route, but Charlie’s Penny had no trouble finishing the job Saturday, ate with vigor after returning to her stall, and looked well Sunday morning.

“She’s just low-key, very professional around the barn, doesn’t really tout you. She got the mile-seventy yesterday, so we’ll probably try the Rachel,” Block said.

Block was referring to the Feb. 13 Rachel Alexandra, a Grade 2 over 1 1/16 miles that probably will attract a meaningfully stronger field than the Silverbulletday. But Charlie’s Penny already has outrun her trainer’s expectations, and maybe she can keep on going.

Mandaloun may add blinkers

Over the last year, Brad Cox has found far more triumph than disappointment on big race days. Take, for instance, the Breeders’ Cup, where he won four races with sevenfigure purses over the course of the two-day meeting at Keeneland.

But Saturday at Fair Grounds didn’t go as well for Cox. Secret Message won the $100,000 Marie Krantz Memorial, and Cox knocked out a turf maiden win with the Juddmonte Farms homebred Fulsome, but oddson Juddmonte favorites could not find the winner’s circle in the Silverbulletday and the Lecomte.

Mandaloun actually ran just fine in the Lecomte, finishing third, beaten a head for second while one length behind victorious Midnight Bourbon. The Lecomte marked Mandaloun’s stakes and two-turn debut, but the Into Mischief colt was a 4-5 favorite and didn’t live up to that level of hype.

“I didn’t think he ran bad at all, and I had more questions with him than with Sun Path. He accepted the two turns, maybe not as well as I expected,” Cox said.

Cox said Mandaloun looked very well on Sunday morning. Discussions will take place with Juddmonte’s North American

racing manager Garrett O’Rourke, but Cox said strong consideration will be given to running Mandaloun in blinkers. Mandaloun, Cox said, is a likely starter next month in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes over 1 1/8 miles.

As for Sun Path, she tried stakes competition for the first time but already had crushed a two-turn Fair Grounds allowance field last month and looked formidable in the Silverbulletday – right up to the point where she didn’t. Pressing a slow pace (all the dirt-route stakes Saturday unfolded at a strangely slow tempo), Sun Path had the lead at the top of the stretch but came up empty and finished fourth, beaten four lengths.

“She came out of it in good order, looked great. I can’t give her an excuse, and she’s the one that needed one,” Cox said. “I do think we’re going to give her time, from the standpoint of not running her back in the Rachel. We could possibly point for the Honeybee [at Oaklawn] or just wait for the Fair Grounds Oaks. In the end, it’s just January, and we’re hoping these horses are going to be at their best in May.”

Title Ready may try Dubai

Title Ready, making the first start of his 6-year-old season, won his first graded stakes by taking the Grade 3 Louisiana on Saturday, earning a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure. It was a good win for the horse, who is not gelded, and his connections are looking for even more.

“We’re thrilled,” said Dallas Stewart, who trains the Chuck Fipke homebred. “He came back great and we’re really thinking about the Dubai World Cup.”

Stewart said since Title Ready ran so well off a twomonth break in the Louisiana, he’d be inclined to go to Dubai fresh. That $12 million race is scheduled for March 27.