Proctor reaps benefit of backing Van Dyke

The richest race in Asia on Saturday will be the Group 3 Shion Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse, at 10 furlongs on grass, offering a purse that translates to about $680,000.

The richest race in Europe on Saturday is the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock Park, a six-furlong event worth about $400,000 that has lured the best speedballs the region can offer, including James Garfield and The Tin Man.

That leaves Saturday’s richest race in the world to North America, taking place at Kentucky Downs at around 6 p.m. Eastern, when a dozen battle-tested older horses go forth in the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup at a mile and a half around a grass layout that includes a nifty switchback, a right-hand bend, and an uphill run through a searching straightaway to the finish in front of a country festival crowd. For a purse of $750,000. The game is growing accustomed to the bounty of Kentucky Downs, where management pours a healthy chunk of its Instant Racing bonanza into a handful of racing days. The place was discovered quickly by stables with an excess of turf talent, and now many of the nation’s leading owners and trainers have the dates circled in bright green.

Saturday’s supporting feature is the Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, with its purse of $500,000 supplemented by $200,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. The field includes fillies and mares trained by Shug McGaughey, Mark Casse, Phil D’Amato, Michael Stidham, Brendan Walsh, and Richard Baltas.

The Kentucky Turf Cup also gave off a magnetic attraction. The field includes graded stakes winners trained by Ian Wilkes, Jimmy Toner, Peter Miller, Brad Cox, and Ken McPeek. Mike Maker has four in the main body of the race, including defending champ Oscar Nominated, while Tom Proctor will be back in town with Big Bend, winner last year of the Dueling Grounds Derby over the Kentucky Downs course.

A son of Union Rags out of a Broad Brush mare, Big Bend dallied on the dirt as a 2-year-old, then found his true calling on turf at the beginning of his 3-year-old campaign. He was 18-1 when he took the Dueling Grounds Derby field wire to wire, then franked that form with a smart win in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland in his very next start.

Since then, things haven’t gone quite as well. Big Bend was bafflingly off form earlier this year when Proctor discovered that the poor guy had come down with Lyme disease.

“One day he had a temperature and he was all stopped up,” Proctor said. “We put him on some antibiotics, and then we pulled a tick off him. We tested for Lyme disease and he was positive. I’d never had one have it before.”

Big Bend came around, and by the time he ran in the Cape Henlopen Stakes at Delaware Park on July 7, he was acting like the 4-year-old he was meant to be. He was beaten just a length and a half at the end of 12 furlongs.

“I thought that was a good race,” Proctor said, “especially considering I don’t think he was completely over the effects of the disease. It seems like he’s doing real good right now. If he’s back to where he was for his race at Kentucky Downs last year he should be all right.”

Big Bend will be reunited with Drayden Van Dyke on Saturday, which makes sense. They teamed for both the Dueling Grounds Derby and the Sycamore in their only encounters. Van Dyke is fresh from winning the riding title at Del Mar, thanks in large part to a spectacular sevenwinner day. Proctor contributed to the cause with Glen Hill Farm’s 2-year-old filly Summering, winner of the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf there on closing day.

Proctor was Van Dyke’s earliest mentor and staunch backer as the young rider made his way through an Eclipse Award-winning apprentice season in 2014, while getting plenty of chances with the horses of Glen Hill Farm. Van Dyke had put in his time working with the horses at the Florida farm before embarking on his career.

“He never wanted to be anything but a jockey,” said Craig Bernick, president of Glen Hill. “But he did everything at the farm – break yearlings, clean stalls, drive the tractor – whatever needed to be done. Then at the end of the day he’d be out on the track running, getting strong.

“What sets him apart, I think, is the fact that he has learned to be a jockey while competing with the best in the game,” Bernick added. “That doesn’t happen often. Normally they’d come to tracks like Del Mar and Santa Anita after establishing themselves somewhere else.”

Van Dyke did, in fact, travel to Turf Paradise a few times during his apprentice season to keep in action on Southern California’s dark days. Proctor encouraged such experiences, and still thinks it’s a good idea for Van Dyke to ride in as many races as he can … for a particular reason.

“When he started out we had a contract,” Proctor explained. “The deal was, when he won 5,000 races he’d buy me a Cadillac. So I think he should still be riding in Phoenix on the off days. I might be in my 80s, but I figure to have me a new Cadillac.”

Van Dyke had 500 winners entering the week. He turns 24 on Monday.