Chimney Rock back from year layoff

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Chimney Rock is a Breeders’ Cup horse, or at least he was. A runnerup finish in the 2019 BC Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita surely has been out of most everyone’s minds, perhaps in large part because the colt has been out of sight.

A layoff of very nearly a year precedes an eagerly awaited return to action for Chimney Rock, now 4, on an eight-race twilight card Thursday at Churchill Downs. It was on June 19, 2020, that Chimney Rock last raced, but the Three Diamonds color-bearer has been regrouped and readied by trainer Mike Maker with a series of steady workouts at the nearby Trackside training center.

Chimney Rock, with Ricardo Santana Jr. to ride, will face older horses for the first time when he resurfaces in a co-feature that’s part of a Derby City 6 wager that has seen its jackpot grow to $123,086. First post is 5 p.m. Eastern, with the 20-cent Derby City 6 spanning races 3-8.

Chimney Rock is one of seven entered in race 6, a $106,000 third-level allowance with an $80,000 claiming option. It’s scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf, and given a sustained forecast of warm and dry weather in this region, it will stay put.

The substantial layoff will give horseplayers cause for pause, but in Chimney Rock’s favor is that he won his only prior start over the Churchill turf in May 2020, and Maker is hitting at an 18 percent clip with horses returning from a six-month layoff or more. Moreover, the Artie Schiller colt’s past performances are replete with stakes, including his near-miss to Four Wheel Drive in the Breeders’ Cup, so there’s a class edge to be inferred here.

If he’s not quite ready or able, Chimney Rock could find Born Great and Angaston as his chief threats, although they, too, have been away for periods of varying lengths. Another opponent of interest is Royal Daaher, a major factor in the recent Aristides, but he’ll be making his first-ever start over grass.

The other allowance co-feature also carries a thirdlevel condition with a $106,000 purse. It’s carded before the Derby City 6 as race 2, surely because it drew a field of just five. Cinnabunny, Rising Seas, and Ain’t No Elmers are the principals in an interesting sixfurlong matchup of fillies and mares.

Purses for non-claiming/ starter races at Churchill include sizable bonuses restricted to horses eligible to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. As an example, bonuses total $39,900 for each of the Thursday allowances.

Thursday begins a fourday week highlighted by the $110,000 Roxelana, a main track sprint for fillies and mares on Saturday.