E.T. Baird and One Timer after they won the Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson for 3-year-old sprinters last September. (Grace Clark/Kentucky Downs)
By Jennie Rees, Kentucky Downs publicity
HENDERSON, Ky.—The Larry Rivelli-trained One Timer, winner of last year’s Grade 2 Franklin-Simpson for 3-year-old sprinters at Kentucky Downs, runs at his 10th track in 11 career starts in Sunday’s $200,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint at 5 1/2 furlongs. Off a nine-month layoff, the gelding won a handicap at Cincinnati’s Belterra Park then was third in Woodbine’s Grade 2 Highlander. The runner-up that day, Oceanic, also is in the Ellis stakes for Louisville-based owner Jordan Blair.
Rivelli also entered 4-for-5 Act a Fool, who in his last start won the Hawthorne Derby in his turf debut, in the KDP Dueling Grounds Derby at 1 1/8 miles.
Trainer Bret Calhoun hopes this weekend’s stakes are launching pads to Kentucky Downs with New Boss (in Saturday’s KDP Ladies Turf Sprint) and Excess Magic (in Sunday’s KDP Turf Sprint). It’s not just the $1 million purses they would run for, but he thinks the added distance of sprint races at Kentucky Downs will benefit his late-running sprinters. New Boss has largely been racing at 5 1/2 furlongs but would get 6 1/2 furlongs in Kentucky Downs’ AGS Ladies Sprint (G3). Excess Magic, who has been racing at five-eighths of a mile in Texas, should be able to show his best stuff in the Kentucky Downs’ Ainsworth Turf Sprint (G2) at six furlongs. The winner of that race gets an automatic sport in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita.
Mike Maker, Kentucky Downs’ all-time win and earnings leader, has three horses in Sunday’s stakes, including Horseshoe Indiana’s Jon B. Schuster winner Me and Mr. C and Texas Turf Classic winner King Cause in the $250,000 KDP Turf Cup. Heaven Street will make his first start for Maker and owners Paradise Farm Corps. and David Staudacher in the KDP Mint Millions Turf Mile after being purchased last month for $210,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s horses of racing age sale. Maker has two horses in Saturday’s stakes.
Among others entered: Millionaire and 11-time winner Just Might (trainer Michelle Lovelle) in the KDP Turf Sprint; Play Action Pass (Robert Medina), winner of Kentucky Downs’ Gun Runner Stakes last year, in the KDP Mint Millions Turf Mile; Bay Storm, who lost Kentucky Downs’ Ladies Sprint by a nose last year to heavy favorite Campanelle, is in Saturday’s prep at Ellis; Showgirl Lynne B, winner of Kentucky Downs’ $250,000 allowance race last year for fillies sold at Keeneland’s 2021 September yearling sale, is in the KDP Ladies Turf Sprint after being sold at Fasig-Tipton last month and turned over to Joe Sharp; Godolphin’s American Derby winner Wadsworth (Brad Cox) in the KDP Dueling Grounds Derby; Gray’s Fable (Brian Lynch), winner of the comparable race last year, is back in the KDP Mint Millions Turf Mile; Kentucky Downs’ Gun Runner second-place finisher Fuerteventura (Jonathan Thomas) goes in the Mint Millions prep; Bad Beat Brian (Brittany Vanden Berg), a Kentucky Downs allowance winner after finishing a close third in the turf sprint stakes at Ellis, returns in the KDP Turf Sprint; Henrietta Topham (Geoff Mulcahy) shoots for a repeat in Ellis Park’s turf mile stakes for fillies and mares; New Year’s Eve (Brendan Walsh), fourth in last year’s Dueling Grounds Oaks, comes into the KDP Ladies Turf Mile off of a respectable fourth in Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Just A Game.
Also notable: Trainer and Louisville product George Weaver, who swept Monmouth Park’s juvenile turf sprints with Amidst Waves in the Colleen and No Nay Mets in the Tyro, isn’t discounting bringing them to Kentucky Downs for the track’s lucrative 2-year-old stakes, worth $500,000 for Kentucky-breds and with a $250,000 base purse. “We will keep an eye on and consider those spots,” the New York-based Weaver said in a text.
2023 Kentucky Downs stakes schedule
All stakes are on turf and include Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund
Thursday Aug. 31 — $500,000 FanDuel TVG Tapit Stakes, 3-year-olds & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.
Saturday Sept. 2 — $1 million Big Ass Fans Music City (G3), 3-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Gun Runner, 3-year-olds, one mile; $2 million The Mint Millions (G3), 3-year-olds & up, one mile.
Sunday Sept. 3 — $1 million National Thoroughbred League Dueling Grounds Derby (G3), 3-year-olds, 1 5/16 miles; $1 million Dueling Grounds Oaks, 3-year-old fillies, 1 5/16 miles.
Thursday Sept. 7 — $500,000 Jeff Ruby’s One Dreamer, fillies and mares 3 years old & up who have not won a stakes in 2023, mile and 70 yards.
Saturday Sept. 9 — $1 million Ainsworth Turf Sprint (G2) *BC, 3-year-olds & up, six furlongs; $1 million FanDuel Turf Cup (G2) *BC, 3-year-olds & up, 1 1/2 miles; $1 million Exacta Systems Franklin-Simpson (G2), 3-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million AGS Ladies Sprint (G2), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 6 1/2 furlongs; $1 million Castle Hill Gaming Ladies Turf (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, one mile; $1 million Aristocrat Ladies Marathon (G3), fillies and mares 3 years old & up, 1 5/16 miles.
Sunday, Sept. 10 — $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile, 2-year-olds, mile; $500,000 Global Tote Juvenile Fillies, 2-year-old fillies, mile.
Wednesday Sept. 13 — $500,000 Pepsi Juvenile Sprint, 2-year-olds, 6 1/2 furlongs; $500,000 Pepsi Untapable, 2-year-old fillies, 6 1/2 furlongs.
*BC: Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series race – winner gets fees-paid berth in corresponding Breeders’ Cup race at Santa Anita
