Churchill Downs Press Release
LOUISVILLE, Ky.— Saturday’s $300,000 Chilukki Stakes (Grade III) will be an emotional day for trainer Chris Block as his defending race champion, She Can’t Sing, will make her final career start for her late owner/breeder, Bob Lothenbach, who passed away this week.
“It’s a major blow to all of us who were close to Bob,” Block said Thursday morning on ‘At the Races with Steve Byk’. “He was a very, very loyal client of mine. I think I trained for him for nearly 25 years. Most of my success with Bob was from his homebreds. He just let us do our job. He never entered in with a question where he would ask what we were doing. He left us alone to do our job. After a race – win, lose or draw – it was the same Bob Lothenbach. He’d just say ‘Buckle up and let’s do better the next time.’”
She Can’t Sing was part of Lothenbach’s breeding program. The 6-year-old daughter of Bernardini is out of the Distorted Humor mare Distorted Music. Trainer Neil Pessin, also a longtime client of Lothenbach, trained Distorted Music for the late owner.
“She’s been a little off form this year on the turf but really likes the dirt surface at Churchill,” Block said. “Hopefully she can go out a winner.”
Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. will carry the Lothenbach colors aboard She Can’t Sing from post No. 5.
Here is the complete field for the Chilukki from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): Nostalgic (Florent Geroux, Bill Mott, 9-2); Raindrops on Roses (Joe Talamo, Pat Huffman, 30-1); Hidden Connection (Tyler Gaffalione, Bret Calhoun, 5-2); Oeuvre (Jareth Loveberry, Block, 5-1); She Can’t Sing (Hernandez, Block, 8-1); Braganza (Declan Cannon, Eddie Kenneally, 12-1); Falconet (Luis Saez, Todd Pletcher, 4-1); Be Like Water (Martin Garcia, Vicki Oliver, 20-1); and Hot and Sultry (Ricardo Santana Jr., Norm Casse, 7-2).
The one-mile Chilukki will take place as Race 10 of 11 with a post time of 5:35 p.m. First post is 1 p.m.
