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(Get Smokin winning last year’s FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup. Mike Kane)
FRANKLIN, Ky. (Monday, Sept. 2, 2024) — The fields have been set for Saturday’s FanDuel TV U.S. Open Turf Championships: six graded stakes at Kentucky Downs worth up to $2 million apiece.
Among the entries taken Monday for Saturday’s card are horses seeking repeats of their 2023 Kentucky Downs victories: Get Smokin (G2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup), Gear Jockey (G2 Ainsworth Turf Sprint, a race he also won in 2022), British-based Ancient Rome (G3 Mint Millions) and Vergara (G3 Light & Wonder Ladies Marathon). Anglophile, winner of last year’s Dueling Grounds Derby (now the DK Horse Nashville Derby) returns in the Kentucky Turf Cup as well.
The other two stakes, both for 3-year-olds, each attracted the winner of one of last year’s stakes for 2-year-olds: Vote No (G1 Aristocrat Franklin-Simpson) and Crown Imperial (G2 AGS Music City).
The influx of Europeans continues, headed by Irish icon Aidan O’Brien bringing in Greenfinch (Ladies Marathon), Mountain Bear (Mint Millions) and Chief Little Rock (Kentucky turf Cup). Charlie Hills, trainer of Ancient Rome, also is sending Khaadem, winner the past two years of Royal Ascot’s Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee.
Kentucky-breds will compete for the full $2 million; others for a $1 million purse.
To show how popular the Kentucky Downs stakes have become, 32 three-year-old fillies were entered in the Music City at 6 1/2 furlongs. Only 12 can run.
The FanDuel TV U.S. Open Turf Championships card offers a total of $13 million, including purse enhancements for Kentucky-breds. That gives the day the potential to pay out the most purses in North America for one day behind only Breeders’ Cup Championship Saturday.
The winners of the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Turf Cup and six-furlong Turf Sprint receive a fees-paid berth in the corresponding Breeders’ Cup race on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. In addition, Kentucky Downs will pay the entry fees for winners of the Mint Millions, Franklin-Simpson and Ladies Marathon if they make the corresponding Breeders’ Cup field.
Here’s a quick look at the fields:
$2 million, G3 Light & Wonder Ladies Marathon (Race 6, 2:27 p.m. CT)
Distance: 1 5/16 miles. Division: Fillies & mares 3-year-olds & up.
The Graham Motion-trained Vergara has run four times since last year’s Ladies Marathon score, and been third in all four heading into the Ladies Marathon’s field of nine.
Aidan O’Brien’s Kentucky Downs contingent includes 3-year-old filly Greenfinch, the winner of Cork’s Group 3 Darley Munster Oaks who will take on older horses in the Ladies Marathon. The Japanese-bred Three Priests is expected to ship from England and is a distance specialist from Roger Varian’s stable. But off a 1-for-11 record, she’d seem up against it.
The Brad Cox-trained Chop Chop returns to the track where she won the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies as a 2-year-old. This year she won Keeneland’s Bewitch (G3) at 1 1/2 miles and has two seconds and a third in three stakes since.
Others: Grade 3 winners Neecie Marie and Angel Nadeshiko, Grade 1-placed Forever After All, Viva La Red and Loved Reiko,
$2 million, G2 AGS Music City (Race 7, 3:04 p.m. CT)
Distance: 6 1/2 furlongs. Division: 3-year-old fillies
The overflow field attracted graded-stakes winners Pounce (Saratoga’s Grade 3 Lake George),Time to Dazzle (Woodbine’s Grade 3 Ontario Colleen), Irish Grade 3 winner Kairyu (IRE), Pipsy (Belmont-at-Aqueduct’s Soaring Softly), Visually (Santa Anita’s G3 Seniority).
Buttercream Babe, another Mike Maker horse, won her debut last year at Kentucky Downs and two weeks later was a close third in the track’s Untapable Stakes. In her last start she was an excellent third against boys in Saratoga’s Grade 2 Hall of Fame Stakes.
Chad Brown entered Kentucky Oaks third-place finisher Regulatory Risk, who would be making her turf debut. Others who made the cut by being graded-stakes placed: Crown Imperial, Amidst Waves, Pharoah’s Wine (who won a Kentucky Downs maiden race last year), Simply in Front and Vive Veuve.
The Music City was flooded with stakes-winners who did not get in. Only half the entries made the program, with 12 in the body of the race and four also-eligibles needing scratches to get in.
$2 million, G3 Mint Millions (Race 8, post 3:41 p.m. CT)
Distance: mile. Division: 3-year-olds & up
Trainer Brendan Walsh has entered Irish Aces, winner of Kentucky Downs’ opening-day Big Ass Fans Tapit on Aug. 29, back in the Mint Millions, which attracted a field of 11. There is precedence for Walsh running a horse twice at Kentucky Downs’ short meet: Born Again won a maiden and an allowance race seven days apart in 2020. Walsh also entered Reckoning Force, who won the Kentucky
Multiple graded-stakes winner Emmanuel will make his first start for trainer Mike Maker in the Mint Millions, having been purchased on an online auction for $500,000 this summer. Maker will be seeking his third victory in the race. He also entered Ellis Park’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Mint Millions winner Tut’s Revenge.
Funtastic Again will make his first start since he was second by a half-length in Santa Anita’s Shoemaker Mile (G1) on May 24. Talk of the Nation won last year’s Gun Runner and most recently was fourth in the Arlington Million (G1).
The Aidan O’Brien-trained 3-year-old Mountain Bear was second in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita. He’s rounding into form this year, finishing a close second in the Group 3 Bahrain Turf Club Desmond Stakes at Leopardstown in his last start.
The speedy Goliad, winner of Sunday’s $500,000 overnight handicap, was entered back by Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella. Multiple stakes-winner Strong Quality and Cash Equity were also entered.
$2 million, Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson (Race 9, post 4:18 p.m. CT)
Distance: 6 1/2 furlongs. Division: 3-year-olds
A full field of 12, plus the maximum four also-eligibles, were entered in the first ever Grade 1 stakes to be held at Kentucky Downs. And it looks like anyone’s race. French import Evade, second in a Group 3 in his native country and winner of a handicap at Epsom, will make his first start for trainer Mike Maker. He also has been gelded.
Maker also is doubling up in this race, with Belmont-at-Aqueduct’s Paradise Creek winner Smokey Smokey. His third entrant, Ellis Park allowance winner Save the Trees, needs defections to run.
Stakes-winner include Apollo Ten (Monmouth’s My Frenchman), Bear River (Dade Park Dash), Joe Shiesty (William Walker), Vote No More (Turfway Prevue),Please Advise (Aqueduct’s Atlantic Beach). Others in the field include: General Ledger, Yellow Card, Hedwig (last year’s Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint runner-up), Howard Wolowitz and Mansa Muse.
$2 million, G2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup (G2) (Race 10, 4:55 p.m. CT)
Distance: 1 1/2 miles. Division: 3-year-olds & up
The Mark Casse-trained Get Smokin has raced twice since last year’s front-running victory in the Kentucky Turf Cup at 19-1: a good fourth in Woodbine’s Eclipse (G2) then taking Monmouth’s United Nations (G2) by a nose over Turf Cup entrant Grand Sonata. Third that day by a head was Tawny Porter (Christophe Clement), who has been beaten in graded stakes photo finishes in four of his last five starts heading into this race.
After Britain’s Bellum Justum swooped in to capture last Saturday’s $3.1 million DK Horse Nashville Derby, Chief Little Rock (IRE) is sure to be greeted enthusiastically at the betting windows as a Group 3 winner for Irish kingpin Aidan O’Brien.
The field of 11 older horses include Balladeer, who came from California for trainer George Papaprodromou last year to win a second-level allowance race. In his next start, Balladeer won Santa Anita’s Grade 2 John Henry. The front-runner could keep Get Smokin entertained on the lead.
Grand Sonata, a Grade 3 winner at age 2, was second in the 2022 Dueling Grounds Derby at 3. In his last start he was last of five in Saratoga’s Sword Dancer (G1) and was entered by trainer Todd Pletcher to run back in two weeks.
Cathkin Peak (IRE) won Saratoga’s 1 5/8-mile John’s Call Stakes in his first start off the $80,000 claim for trainer Mike Maker, who also has $50,000 claim and Churchill Downs’ Louisville Stakes (G3) winner Sugoi entered.
Highway Robber, Anglophile’s stablemate with Brian Lynch, won the fees-paid birth by taking Ellis Park’s Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup.
Integration, whose co-owners include the West Point Thoroughbreds partnership headed by Terry Finley of nearby Bowling Green, Ky., was second in the Arlington Million after winning that Grade 1 race’s prep at Colonial Downs for trainer Shug McGaughey.
King Curlin, who has two seconds in two Kentucky Downs starts, rounds out the field.
$2 million, G2 Ainsworth Turf Sprint (Race 11, post 5:31 p.m. CT)
Distance: 6 furlongs. Division: 3-year-olds & up.
You won’t want to blink during this race, which is bringing together an extraordinary assembly of fast horses. Those include 2023 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Nobals and his Larry Rivelli-trained stablemate One Timer, who lost the Kentucky Downs stakes on a head bob last year after taking the Franklin-Simpson in 2022.
The Steve Asmussen-trained Cogburn has emerged this year as the country’s top turf sprinter. In two starts this year, Cogburn won Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 TwinSpires Turf Sprint (off an eight-month layoff) and Saratoga’s Grade 1 Jaipur. His last start in 2023 came in this same race, when he was part of the mad dash to the wire, finishing fifth while losing by a total of three-quarters of a length.
British trainer Charlies Hills, who also brought back Ancient Rome, has sent the accomplished 8-year-old Khaadem, winner of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee at Royal Ascot the past two years. While the Irish-bred gelding was 10th in his last two starts, he’s a horse who should relish getting firm turf at Kentucky Downs.
Gear Jockey hasn’t raced since he finished 11th in the Breeders’ Cup. But trainer Rusty Arnold has liked what he’s seen in the 7-year-old horse’s training to shoot for winning the race three times in four years (and not competing in 2022)
Grooms All Bizness (Jorge Duarte) has won four his last five starts (the defeat a third by a half-length), most recently prevailing in $100,000 stakes at Pimlico and Monmouth Park.
Witty (Elizabeth Merriman) comes in off three straight seconds in stakes, including Woodbine’s Grade 2 Highlander. Witty is out of the same mare (Zeezee Zoomzoom) who produced the tremendous female turf sprinter Caravel.
The 8-year-old Charcoal made the field by virtue of getting an automatic, fees-paid spot as winner of Ellis Park’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint by a head over Arrest Me Red, who won a Kentucky Downs allowance race Sunday.
Others in the overflow field of 13: Multiple stakes-winner Coppola, fourth in both of Cogburn’s races this year; Axthelm and Noble Reflection. Five o’ Somewhere needs a scratch to run. |
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