KENTUCKY Gun Runner heads to Churchill

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Gun Runner was scheduled to arrive Saturday at Churchill Downs from Saratoga, with no set schedule before he leaves again in a few weeks for Southern California to prepare for the Breeders’ Cup.

Steve Asmussen, who trains Gun Runner for Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, said he will monitor the colt’s progress for a few days before deciding on a first breeze at Churchill. Gun Runner won the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga by 10 1/4 lengths on Sept. 2.

“We’re planning on sending him out west toward the end of this month,” Asmussen said, adding the colt will be accompanied on the trip by longtime assistant trainer Scott Blasi.

Asmussen said Gun Runner will be stabled at Santa Anita for a few weeks and will have one workout at Del Mar, where he will face Arrogate in an epic rematch in the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Forever Unbridled nears breeze

Dallas Stewart said Forever Unbridled will train regularly at Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Nov. 3 at Del Mar, maintaining a schedule similar to the one she used prior to upsetting Songbird in the Personal Ensign Aug. 26 at Saratoga.

“It’ll be the same time frame, the same approach to what we used into Saratoga,” Stewart said, adding it will be about the same gap between races to the Distaff as it was to the Personal Ensign.

Stewart said the first breeze back could come in a week or so. “We’re going to ease her back into it,” he said.

McCraken idling for now

Trainer Ian Wilkes said he is taking it easy with his stable star McCraken, and is unsure when the 3-year-old colt will race again. McCraken ran seventh in the Aug. 26 Travers after being narrowly defeated in the July 30 Haskell.

“I’m probably just going to run him one more time this year,” Wilkes said. “No Breeders’ Cup. We’re going to run him as a 4-year-old, so I’m not in any hurry to do anything with him.”

Wilkes, meanwhile, enjoyed a hot start to the five-day meet at Kentucky Downs by winning three races over the first two days and barely missing a fourth when Thatcher Street was beaten a head Thursday in the Old Friends Stakes. The Wilkes winners were Mr Cub ($10.40) on Wednesday, and Res Ipsa ($17.60) and Miss Nancy ($31.40) on Thursday.

Maker not missing a dance

Mike Maker, the leading trainer in Kentucky Downs history, has at least one starter in all 10 races Sunday at Kentucky Downs, including in both stakes and both Claiming Crown qualifiers.

Races 6 and 7, both with $75,000 purses, are Win and You’re In races toward the 19th annual Claiming Crown series Dec. 2 at Gulfstream Park. Maker, also the leading trainer in Claiming Crown history, stands a good chance in the second of those preps with Special Ops, a last-out stakes winner on the Aug. 5 West Virginia Derby card at Mountaineer Park.

Maker swept the late double Thursday at Kentucky Downs and entered this weekend with 37 wins at the track.

Losing when you win

When do you lose when you win at Kentucky Downs? When big bonuses go uncollected because a horse wasn’t eligible for them.

The most glaring example came Wednesday when Applicator won the Tourist. The maximum purse of $400,000 was reduced to $270,020 because the 4-year-old Kentucky-bred gelding was never registered with the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund, which distributes purse enhancements to most of the Kentucky Downs races. The winner’s share of $120,280 was half of what otherwise would have been paid to the winning owner, Olympia Star Inc.

Sir Dudley Digges, winner of the Old Friends on Thursday, is an Ontario-bred who also missed out on a KTDF bonus.

◗ Half-brothers out of a Breeders’ Cup winner will both be in action Sunday at Kentucky Downs when Dreaming of Jo Jo makes his debut in race 4 and Frank the Butcher runs in race 10. Both maiden colts were produced by Dreaming of Anna, winner of the 2006 BC Juvenile Fillies for owner Frank Calabrese and trainer Wayne Catalano.

Dreaming of Jo Jo is a 2-yearold by Malibu Moon and Frank the Butcher is a 3-year-old by Medaglia d’Oro. Both were bred by Calabrese and are trained by Catalano.

◗ The strength of racing at Saratoga this summer was evidenced by the opening-day results at Kentucky Downs. Five of the last six winners had made their previous start at the upstate New York track, including three of the four stakes winners: My Impression (One Dreamer), Ultima D (Juvenile Fillies), and Snapper Sinclair (Juvenile).

◗ An upset by Over Thinking in the fifth race Thursday allowed one bettor to make a rare sweep of the entire superfecta pool. The only dime sold on the winning combination of 13-5-9-12 was worth $49,365.10, with the odds on the first four finishers closing at 45-1, 5-2, 19-1, and 34-1.