McPeek juveniles look tough

Ken McPeek initially believed he could get by with 11 weeks between races for his budding stable stars, Ten City and Sunny Skies.

But the more McPeek thought about it, the more the veteran trainer realized that an interim prep would benefit both 2-yearolds as they worked toward critical races next month at Churchill Downs.

That’s how the last two stakes of the Ellis Park summer meet got their likely favorites. Ten City will be using the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile as a stepping-stone toward the Grade 3 Iroquois a half-hour after Sunny Skies uses the $75,000 Ellis Park Debutante for the Grade 2 Pocahontas. The Juvenile (race 8) and Debutante (race 7) are co-features on a nine-race Sunday card at the western Kentucky track.

Both Churchill races will run Sept. 16 not only as Win and You’re In events for the Nov. 3-4 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar but also as the first points races toward the 2018 Kentucky Derby and Oaks.

McPeek’s horses flashed considerable potential by winning stakes June 30, closing night of the Churchill spring meet. Ten City defeated eventual Saratoga Special winner Copper Bullet in the Bashford Manor, after which Sunny Skies won the Debutante.

“They’ve been working together [at Keeneland] and have been doing really well,” McPeek told Ellis publicity this week from Saratoga. “My assistant said, ‘I don’t know if I can sit on these horses for another month.’ We collectively decided it would just be best to run them. We still have a month coming back to the Churchill races. And it looks like both horses have a pretty good chance.”

Each of the seven-furlong stakes Sunday at Ellis drew fields limited to 12 starters, and although both McPeek horses own flashy 2-for-2 records, neither can be considered a shoo-in.

Also contesting the Juvenile is Dak Attack, a sharp debut winner at Churchill for trainer Dale Romans. Before McPeek decided to enter Ten City, Robby Albarado already had committed to Dak Attack, helping to explain why the veteran jockey won’t be back aboard Ten City

on Sunday. Jack Gilligan picks up the mount on Ten City.

“No one involved with this horse ever thought the best race of his life was going to be August of his 2-year-old year,” said Bret Jones, whose family bred Dak Attack and stayed in as a minority owner after the colt sold for $625,000 to the Albaugh Family Stables last September at Keeneland. “The way he’s made, the way he’s bred, he’s a horse we think is going to get better and better. And that’s exactly what Dale has been telling us from the start.”

Dak Attack, by Ghostzapper, is named in honor of Dak Prescott, the second-year quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Jason Loutsch, racing manager and son-in-law of owner Dennis Albaugh, is a big Cowboys fan.

Other possibilities in the Juvenile include Make Noise, Big Iron, Private Vigilante, and Northern Trail, all last-out maiden winners at the current meet.

The Debutante is a rematch of the race by the same name at Churchill, in which Sunny Skies turned back Upset Brewing by 1 3/4 lengths over a racetrack rendered sloppy by a midcard downpour. Since then, Upset Brewing has slipped in an easy maiden victory for trainer Buff Bradley.

Other Debutante fillies include the uncoupled John Hancock-trained pair of Waki Patriot and Amberspatriot, both with plenty of stakes experience already; Laudation, back from a humbling versus graded competition at Saratoga; and On the Hop, a decent second in a Saratoga allowance four weeks ago for Joan Scott.

First post Sunday is 12:50 p.m. Central, with the Debutante going at 3:40 and the Juvenile at 4:10. They’re the fifth and sixth stakes of a 31-day meet that runs through Labor Day, Sept. 4.

After Sunday, Ellis goes dark for four days before another three-day week resumes Friday. Fans are reminded that Ellis will be dark Sept. 2 to accommodate the opening-day card at Kentucky Downs.