| FRANKLIN, Ky. — Rusty Arnold is hoping that the classy 4-year-old filly Red Carpet Ready is green lawn ready for Kentucky Downs’ $1.5 million Exacta Systems Ladies Sprint, a Grade 2 stakes on Aug. 31, second day of the all-grass track’s seven-day meet.
“She is doing fantastic,” Arnold said of Red Carpet Ready, who is coming off a neck defeat to Awesome Treat in the $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Sprint. “She got beat at Ellis Park. No excuse. She got outrun. Justin Wojczynski’s horse came up the fence and nailed her. But I was happy with her performance first time on the grass.”
A daughter of notable turf sire Oscar Performance, Red Carpet Ready started out on dirt on Oct. 30, 2022, only because Churchill Downs didn’t have turf racing that meet. She won by 10, so why change? A multiple graded-stakes winner on the main track, including starting 2024 with victory in Gulfstream Park’s Hurricane Bertie (G3), Red Carpet Red got the surface switch after subsequently finishing third in Keeneland’s very tough Madison (G1) and a disappointing eighth in the Derby City Gaming (G1) on the Kentucky Derby undercard.
In Arnold’s mind, Red Carpet Ready did everything he wanted to see but win her grass debut at 5 1/2 furlongs, certainly earning a shot at the Ladies Sprint at 6 1/2 furlongs over Kentucky Downs’ undulating course.
“It opened up a new avenue for us, and the distance is lovely for her,” he said. “Her work (“bullet” half-mile in 47 seconds) was very good. If she likes the course, I think she will run well.”
Red Carpet Ready is owned by Ashbrook Farm and Nashville resident Patrick Lewis’ Upland Flats Racing.
Arnold also hopes to have Calumet Farm’s homebred Gear Jockey, winner twice in the past three years of the six-furlong Ainsworth Turf Sprint (G2), and the 3-year-old filly Poolside With Slim in the AGS Music City (G2), both part of the Sept. 7 extravaganza featuring six graded stakes worth $2 million a piece for Kentucky-breds and $1 million for other horses.
The 7-year-old Gear Jockey, who hasn’t run since finishing 11th in last year’s $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita, has been on a narrow path to try to defend last year’s Kentucky Downs victory over One Timer in a four-horse photo. But he took another step forward Friday morning by working at Keeneland.
“They got him five-eighths in 1:02, I got him three-quarters in 1:14 and change,” Arnold said of the workout time. “Everything is day to day; we check ’em out tomorrow. But he gets one more work, and he’s ready to go. He’s not a lovely dirt horse; he doesn’t really train well on dirt. We have no place to work him on the turf, so he’s working on the dirt. But he got ready on the dirt last year. I think I’ll have him ready. His works won’t be spectacular, but he gets a lot out of the dirt works. I think it gets him more tired.”
Of Gear Jockey’s $1,586,651 in career earnings, $1,166,280 is from his two starts at Kentucky Downs, including the 2021 Turf Sprint. He also possesses five thirds in graded-stakes, including as a maiden at 67-1 odds in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf in 2019.
What is it about Gear Jockey and Kentucky Downs?
“I’d have to ask him why he likes it so much, I don’t know,” Arnold said. “I mean, he’s run there twice and won them both. Hard to say. I think the distance helps him. Very few times can we get this (six-furlong) distance. Everything around here is five, 5 1/2. I think that’s why he doesn’t run any good in the Breeders’ Cup. He’s had to go out to California and run in a five-eighths race twice, and it’s tough on him. He just isn’t that kind of horse.
“He goes down there, and he gets a lot more forwardly placed at Kentucky Downs. He’s always near the front end and runs better than when they out-foot him going five-eighths, 5 1/2. Other than that, he just gets comfortable down there.”
Jose Lezcano, aboard for Gear Jockeys’ Kentucky Downs victories, has the mount, Arnold said.
The Ainsworth Turf Sprint winner earns a fees-paid spot in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar as part of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships’ Challenge Series program.
Poolside With Slim worked a half-mile in 48 seconds flat Thursday at Keeneland, the second-fastest of 22 works at the distance, in preparation for the Music City for 3-year-old fillies at 6 1/2 furlongs. International riding star Frankie Dettori, aboard when Poolside With Slim won the mile Penn Oaks, has the mount, Arnold said.
“I’m assuming she’ll get in the Music City,” the trainer said. “She’s a stakes-winner, and I know that’s going to help her. With all the new people, the Europeans have not been around, I know there’s going to be a lot more horses entered in these stakes than in the past. But we put a circle around this race after her race at Churchill (fourth in the Tepin Stakes). She flattened out the last sixteenth of a mile twice in a row. She’s fast enough to be a sprinter, and we said, let’s back her up, get her really really fresh and run her in the Music City.
“The plan to get her there has worked. And now we’ll see if she’s good enough.”
Poolside With Slim is owned by Upland Flats, Ashbrook’s managing partner Bo Bromagen and Bromagen’s mom, Sandra.
Arnold said he also hopes to get BBN’s 2-year-old filly Kilwin, a debut winner at Ellis Park, into the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies at a mile on Sept. 8, with the $1 million Untapable at 6 1/2 furlongs the same day a potential backup plan. Kilwin is a daughter of the terrific turf sire Twirling Candy and out of the Blame mare Spanish Star, making her a half-sister to the excellent turf sprinter One Timer (second on a head bob to Gear Jockey in last year’s Ainsworth Turf Sprint and Kentucky Downs’ 2022 Franklin-Simpson winner) and Saratoga’s recent Alabama (G1) third-place finisher Just Basking. |
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