Man in the Can fills trainer Moquett with Razorback pride

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ron Moquett is fiercely proud of his Arkansas heritage, so there was a little something extra to a race he won last week at Churchill Downs.

Moquett sent out an Arkansas-bred named Man in the Can to win a 1 1/8-mile firstlevel allowance for 3-year-olds last Friday. He earned a second straight 87 Beyer Speed Figure and is now 4 for 5, and likely will get a shot at making the Kentucky Derby with his next start.

“I think he’ll fit with a lot of these other 3-year-olds,” said Moquett. “He’s an improving horse at the right time.”

Moquett was raised in the tiny town of Pocola, Okla., just across the state line from Fort Smith, Ark., his official birthplace.

“Pocola had only one stoplight and no hospital,” said Moquett, 48. “You shopped and did everything in Fort Smith.”

Moquett began his career in racing on the Oaklawn Park backstretch in the mid-1990s and looks forward to taking his stable back home every winter. He is fully aware that Arkansas-breds have never been prominent in racing’s upper crust. Nodouble, who ran his last race in 1970, remains the all-time leading earner ($846,749) in their ranks.

“I was proud of the way this horse ran against all those Kentucky-breds the other day,” he said. “He beat older horses in his last start at Oaklawn, and he’s won twice around two turns now. Besides, he doesn’t know where he was bred.”

Man in the Can is owned by his breeders, J.R. and Rita Young of Van Buren, Ark. The colt is by the young sire Can the Man, who won 3 of 6 starts while racing in 2013-14.

The meaning of Man in the

Can’s name can be interpreted at least a couple of different ways.

“J.R. says it’s for a dude in jail,” said Moquett, “but I think it’s funnier another way because I have the sense of humor of an 11-year-old.”

Moquett said he is leaning toward the July 11 Blue Grass at Keeneland as the next start for Man in the Can, although the July 8 Indiana Derby at Indiana Grand is another option. Both are points qualifiers toward the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.

Walsh continues to roll

Brendan Walsh is doing his best to give a straightforward response to, “Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”

Walsh sent out two more winners Sunday at Churchill in Chaos Theory ($3.80) and Banks Island ($30.20), giving him 10 at the spring meet, which began May 16, second only behind Brad Cox (12). Walsh ranks fourth or better in several other categories among trainers at this meet (minimum 10 starts), including stable earnings ($539,030), win percentage (24.4), and $2 win ROI ($5.72).

Walsh, of course, is still smarting from his stable star Maxfield having been sidelined as one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. Maxfield is recovering from surgery for a condylar fracture suffered in a June 10 workout at Keeneland.

Factor This to top Wise Dan

With entries being drawn Wednesday, Churchill racing officials were expecting lineups of maybe nine or 10 for each of the two Saturday turf stakes, the $200,000 Wise Dan for older horses and the $100,000 Audubon for 3-year-olds.

Factor This figures to be favored in the Grade 2 Wise Dan off a 104 Beyer in winning the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds in his last start.

Meanwhile, fields are taking shape for the major races to be run June 27. Tom’s d’Etat and By My Standards are among the older horses pointing to the Grade 2, $500,000 Stephen Foster, while Midnight Bisou and Serengeti Empress are the big names for the Grade 2, $200,000 Fleur de Lis.

Churchill gets one more day

With the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission granting its approval Tuesday, Churchill will now extend its spring meet by one more day, through June 28, with Ellis Park delaying the opening of its summer meet to July 2.

Ellis runs July 2-5, followed by a five-day Keeneland meet July 8-12. Ellis will then resume racing July 17, conducting three-day weekends through Aug. 30. Churchill then runs its delayed Kentucky Derby week schedule Sept. 1-5, with Kentucky Downs starting its six-day meet on Labor Day, Sept. 7.

◗ Trainer Buff Bradley said he expects to return to his Churchill barn by Friday after undergoing a second cardiac ablation Monday. Bradley, 56, underwent the first ablation last September.