Swill. (Jim McCue/MJC)
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
BALTIMORE, Md. – Keuber Racing and Ten Strike Racing’s Swill, off for nearly two years before making his comeback this summer, edged clear of pacesetter Al Loves Josie approaching the finish line following a stretch-long duel to capture the $75,000 Challedon for 3-year-olds and up which had never won an open sweepstakes.
It was the third start this year and second straight win for Swill ($4.40), a 5-year-old gelding that had gone 660 days between races prior to running second in his June 17 comeback at Laurel Park. Previously trained by Brad Cox before moving to his former assistant, Maryland’s leading trainer Brittany Russell, he rolled to an easy optional claiming allowance victory July 20 at Colonial Downs leading into the Challedon.
“This horse always had a lot of talent,” Russell said. “Obviously, you think about stakes but he’s also a gelding that had a lot of time off, so it was sort of a progression. Get him back to the races was step one. He wins the two-other-than impressively, great. We were going to run him in a three-other-than, but this looked like a neat little spot to try.”
Al Loves Josie took the early initiative and was in front through a half-mile in 46.24 seconds with Grade 1-placed Borracho, the even-money favorite, racing along the rail and Swill given clean air by jockey Sheldon Russell in the two path. Swill ranged up to the leader as Borracho began to drop back on the turn and the two matched strides down the stretch until Swill nudged past inside the sixteenth pole to win by 1 ½ lengths. The winning time was 1:13.87 over a main track rated muddy.
“I wasn’t worried about the track,” Russell said. “He’s just the man. He’ll show up.”
Swill, by Munnings, was a $265,000 yearling in July 2019 that won one of seven starts for Cox. He had run fourth in three prior stakes attempts including the 2020 Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) to cap his juvenile season and the Robert Hilton Memorial in August 2021, his last start before the layoff.
“This horse always had a lot of talent. Brad had him, and they chose to give him some time off. It was sort of one of those things, kick him out in a big field 24-7 and let him just be a horse,” Russell said. “I don’t want to say he was forgotten about, but he was left out for a long, long time. It became sort of a ‘let’s get him going’ thing. It was a team effort. He spent some time at Fair Hill, he spent some time at Delaware and we got him down to Laurel. A nice horse, all you’ve got to do is get them fit and stay out of their way.”
The Challedon honors the Maryland-bred son of Challenger II that won 20 of 44 starts and $334,660 in purses from 1938 to 1942, was recognized as Horse of the Year in 1939 and 1940 and inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1977. Winner of the 1939 Preakness and 1939-40 Pimlico Special, Challedon also sired 13 stakes winners before his death in 1958.
