Eddie Kenneally | Horse Racing Free Tips

Tactius Heads List Of Nominees For Fayette At Keeneland

Juddmonte's homebred Tacitus, fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Classic here last fall in his lone Keeneland appearance, heads a list of 27 horses nominated to the 64th running of the $200,000 Grade 2 Hagyard Fayette going 1 1/8 miles on the main track to be run Oct. 30, closing day of the 17-day Fall Meet at the Lexington, Ky., track.

Trained by Bill Mott, Tacitus has earned more than $3.7 million in his career with five placings in Grade 1 events and three Grade 2 victories. In his most recent start, Tacitus finished fourth behind top 2021 Breeders' Cup Classic contender Knicks Go in the Grade 3 Lukas Classic at Churchill Downs.

Other nominees of note with Keeneland success include Steve Landers Racing's Night Ops, who was second in the Grade 3 Ben Ali this spring; Thumbs Up Racing's well-traveled Sleepy Eyes Todd, winner of the Lafayette Presented by Keeneland Select here last fall; and Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm's King Fury, winner of the Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington this spring and recent 13-length winner of the Bourbon Trail at Churchill Downs.

Closing day of the Keeneland meet will feature two other stakes: the 17th running of the $150,000 Bryan Station for 3-year-olds going a mile on the turf and the new $150,000 Bowman Mill for 2-year-olds going 6 furlongs on the main track.

Homewrecker Racing's Point Me By, winner of the Grade 1 Bruce D. Stakes at Arlington Park on Aug. 14, tops a list of 38 nominees to the Bryan Station. Eddie Kenneally trains Point Me By.

Other nominees of note are Madaket Stables and Ecurie Ades-Hazen's Grade 3 Virginia Derby winner Wootton Asset (FR), trained by Graham Motion, and trainer Rusty Arnold's duo of Calumet Farm's Cellist, third in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby, and Ashbrook Farm's Ginsburned, who was third in the Bruce D.

Robert and Lawana Low's My Prankster, fourth in the Grade 1 Champagne in his most recent start for trainer Todd Pletcher, tops the list of 20 nominations for the Bowman Mill.

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Kentucky Downs Takes Entries, Draws Post Positions For Sept. 11 Graded Stakes Card

The fields are set for the summer's biggest day of turf racing, as entries were taken and post positions drawn Saturday for the FanDuel Meet at Kentucky Downs' blockbuster Sept. 11 card featuring five graded stakes at the Franklin, Ky., track.

The Super Saturday is the marquee attraction among six huge days of racing Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sept. 11 and 12. First post is 12:20 p.m. Central. All the races will be shown on TVG.

Purses for next Saturday's 11 races total $4,692,000, of which $2.2 million comes from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund for registered Kentucky-bred horses. That's the vast majority of the horses running, but even the base purse that everyone competes for reflects some of the richest pots in the country.

“The card is amazing,” said Kentucky Downs Vice President for Racing Ted Nicholson. “Hats off to our racing office.”

The headliners are the $1 million Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup at 1 1/2 miles and the $1 million Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint at six furlongs. Both are “Win and You're In” stops on the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series and will be televised live by NBC. The Turf Cup winner will get a fees-paid berth in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf and the FanDuel winner the same in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., on Nov. 6.

Donegal Racing's Arklow, the 2020 and 2018 Calumet Turf Cup winner, renews his rivalry with Michael Hui's 2019 victor Zulu Alpha, who was sidelined after last year's stakes and is 0 for 2 this year. Arklow would be the first three-time winner of the race. But they'll have to beat another Grade 1 winner in Channel Cat, returning to Kentucky Downs for the first time since he captured the 2018 Dueling Grounds Derby. He's owned by stakes sponsor Calumet Farm.

Arklow won Churchill Downs' Louisville Stakes and most recently was seventh in the Grade 2 Del Mar Handicap, but beaten only 1 3/4 lengths for everything.

Mike Maker, a five-time meet-leader and Kentucky Downs' record-holder in career wins, has five of the 12 horses in the body of the Calumet Turf Cup, headed by Zulu Alpha. The others are Tide of the Sea, a Kentucky Downs winner last year and Gulfstream's Grade 3 McKnight this year; Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs TVG Preview winner Bluegrass Parkway; Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup third-place finisher Ajourneytofreedom, and Glynn County, third in Arlington Park's Grade 1 Mr. D, the race formerly known as the Arlington Million. A sixth Maker entrant, Dynadrive, needs three scratches to get in the field.

Also in the field: Breakpoint, a triple Grade 1 winner in his native Chile, goes for his first U.S. win in three starts; Irish Group 3 winner Crossfirehurricane; Grade 1 United Nations runner-up Imperador and United Nations third Epic Bromance. Big Dreaming, second in last year's Dueling Grounds Derby, needs a defection to get in.

The FanDuel Turf Sprint brings back last year's top three finishers in Imprimis and the dead-heat runners-up Bombard and Front Run the Fed, who finished a neck behind the winner. But the favorite is likely to be boys-beater Got Stormy, winner of last year's Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint over very soft turf in her first attempt at sprinting. Got Stormy is the only filly or mare to win Saratoga's Grade 1 Fourstardave, having done so in her last start and in 2019 after taking second last year. She has been second in three other Grade 1 starts against males, including in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile.

“We've never backed down from a challenge,” says Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who acknowledges his desire to pad Got Stormy's own Hall of Fame credentials.

Other challengers: Casa Creed, winner of Belmont's Grade 1 Jackpocket Jaipur at the six-furlong distance; multiple graded stakes-winner Diamond Oops; the blossoming Fast Boat, a past winner over the course who last out won Saratoga's Grade 3 Troy Stakes, and Born Great, who last year won a Kentucky Downs maiden and allowance race in the span of a week.

The Richard Baltas-trained Venetian Harbor ships in from California for the $600,000 The Mint Ladies Sprint. The 4-year-old filly has been worse than second only once in 10 starts. In two turf races, she was second in her debut and won Santa Anita's Grade 2 Monrovia.

Also in from the West Coast is the multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Superstition for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. John Sadler sends out Santa Anita stakes-winner Constantia in the overflow field of 14.

The beer will be flowing in Henderson if Yes It's Ginger prevails. There were so many people connected to Henderson beer distributor Mike “Hotdog” Utley, as well as the Brilliant Racing and Tagg Team Racing partnerships, that the winner's circle presentation had to move to the main track after “Ginger” prevailed in the Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Sprint, which gave her a free roll in this 6 1/2-furlong race.

The Casse-trained Jeanie B lost a Grade 2 stakes at Woodbine by a nose in her last start for owner CJ Thoroughbreds, whose managing partner Corey Johnsen was president and part-owner of Kentucky Downs before its sale to Ron Winchell and Marc Falcone.

Violenza enters the race off victory in a $100,000 turf sprint at Colonial Downs in her stakes debut for trainer Ian Wilkes and his son-in-law jockey Chris Landeros. The Maker-trained Jakarta has been off form but won a starter-allowance race here last year.

The $750,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Mile is headlined by 5-for-6 Princess Grace, winner of three straight stakes capped by Del Mar's Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon. The Mike Stidham-trained Princess Grace shares the 126-pound high-weight with 2020 One Dreamer winner Dalika.

She'sonthewarpath, an eight-time winner out of 19 starts, is in peak form off of two stakes victories at Ellis Park. Florida trainer Saffie Joseph has the horse to catch in Shifty She, a two-time stakes-winner at Gulfstream and a good third in Saratoga's De La Rose won by 2020 Ladies Mile winner Regal Glory.

Summer in Saratoga, an allowance winner here last year for trainer Joe Sharp, won Indiana Grand's Indiana General Assembly Distaff in her last start.

With The Lir Jet, Qatar Racing will try to win the $600,000 Franklin-Simpson for the third straight year, and the first time with the stakes a Grade 2. Qatar Racing won last year's stakes with Guildsman, who like The Lir Jet is trained by Brendan Walsh, and in 2019 with the Doug O'Neill-trained Legends of War. The Lir Jet won Royal Ascot's Group 2 Norfolk as a 2-year-old but is winless since. He makes his debut both in the United States and as a gelding.

Sharing high weight status of 124 pounds with The Lir Jet is the Eddie Kenneally-trained Point Me By, winner of Arlington Park's Grade 1 Bruce D. Stakes (formerly the Secretariat).

The field of twelve 3-year-old stakes-winners, with three others on the also-eligible list, includes the filly Miss Amulet, a Group 2 winner in England and a close second in a Group 1. Other contenders in a talented field: Woodbine's Grade 3 Marine winner Easy Time; the Wesley Ward duo of Churchill Downs' War Chant winner Next and Ellis Park's Dade Park Dash victor Into the Sunrise, and American Derby winner Tango Tango Tango. Other stakes-winners are Bodenheimer, King of Miami, Omaha City, and County Final. Last year's Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint runner-up Fauci, also trained by Ward, needs a scratch to get in the field.

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Ellis Park to Honor Backstretch Workers Who Rescued Horses From Fire

Ellis Park plans to honor Marvin Prado and other backstretch workers involved in rescuing six racehorses and one stable pony during a fire in the track's receiving barn last Sunday. They hope to do so during this weekend's races, contingent on the availability of Prado, whose daughter was born two months premature the day after the fire and is still hospitalized.

The barn was engulfed in flames in a matter of 20 minutes and those on the scene say the man of the moment was Prado, with assistance from fellow Kenneally grooms Cristobal Munoz and Estuardo Godoy. Brendan Walsh's grooms Salvador Hernandez and Jose Garcia also were involved, including extricating their stable pony, the retired racehorse Scuba, from the barn.

“They are guys who have been with us a long time,” Kenneally said. “They are good people, so their natural instinct is to try to help. If there's a situation where you're needed, they're the type of people who will jump in and do the right thing.”

Prado noticed the flames while emptying a wheel barrow and yelled to his coworkers. According to those at the scene, Prado jumped into action and one by one retrieved the six racehorses, getting them out by their halters without a lead shank and handing them to his colleagues, who then found empty stalls for the horses.

Prado estimated it took “two or three minutes” to get the six horses out. Five minutes later, he said the barn was completely immersed in flames. Seven fire departments assisted to extinguishing the fire.

Asked later why he went back into the flaming barn, Prado said: “There wasn't any option. The horse had to get out.”

“Racing is a way of life. Taking care of our horses is a way of life,” said Michael Ann Ewing, owner and trainer of Bold and Bossy who was involved in the fire a day after getting loose on the highway. “These guys who stepped in–most of them I've never met–they're heroes. They just dropped everything. Especially those guys who ran into a burning barn without thinking and saved seven horses. Because it could have been really bad.”

“These acts of bravery are a testament to the real folks who represent this industry in largely unseen capacities and actions,” said Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork. “To do what they did, to run into a building engulfed in flames–and then go about their business as if nothing ever happened, like what they did wasn't anything out of the ordinary–they're true heroes with their totally selfless acts of courage.

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Ellis Park To Honor Heroic Grooms Who Saved Horses From Barn Fire

Before he went back into the barn where flames were expanding at an alarming rate, Marvin Prado thought about his wife, who was seven months pregnant with their first child and experiencing complications with high blood pressure.

“What happens to them if something happens to me?” flashed through his mind, Prado said recently. Then he went back into Ellis Park's burning receiving barn and got the last horse out. After that, he resumed cleaning out the stalls of the horses in his care for trainer Eddie Kenneally. Ellis Park is located in Henderson, Ky.

Asked later why he went back into the flaming barn, Prado said: “There wasn't any option. The horse had to get out.”

The next day, Prado was back in Louisville, where he lives. His wife had labor induced, their daughter born two months prematurely.

A lot of people across America have heard the story of Bold and Bossy. That's the 2-year-old filly who got loose in the post parade and ran off the track and over the levee before going onto the highway and interstate until finally being stopped with a huge assist from trainers Wes Hawley and Jack Hancock, who had independently jumped in their trucks in pursuit of the filly. In a bizarre twist of fate, Bold and Bossy, kept overnight because of her traumatic misadventure rather than vanning back to Lexington, was among the six racehorses and a pony in the receiving barn (for horses shipping in to race) when it caught fire in the wee hours of Sunday, Aug. 22.

Fewer people know how those horses got out of their stalls and the barn, which was completely engulfed in fire in perhaps 20 minutes. Those on the scene and already at work at 4 a.m. say the man of the moment was Prado, with assistance from fellow Kenneally grooms Cristobal Munoz and Estuardo Godoy. Brendan Walsh's grooms Salvador Hernandez and Jose Garcia also were involved, including extricating their stable pony, the retired racehorse Scuba, from the barn.

Ellis Park hopes to recognize the backstretch workers during the races this weekend, contingent upon the availability of Prado, whose baby remains hospitalized.

“Racing is a way of life. Taking care of our horses is a way of life,” said Michael Ann Ewing, Bold and Bossy's owner and trainer. “These guys who stepped in — most of them I've never met — they're heroes. They just dropped everything. Especially those guys who ran into a burning barn without thinking and saved seven horses. Because it could have been really bad.

“They're brave. They're kind. They love their horses. People just come together when any of us need help: People running into that fire or chasing my filly down the road, trying to find her. And the response afterward! So many texts, emails, and Facebook questions: 'How is your filly?' I personally want to extend my thanks to everybody and to Marvin, and all who helped him. What could have been a tragedy is not, through people just stepping up and not thinking about themselves.”

Prado was at work, cleaning his horses' stalls and about to empty a wheel barrel when he looked over at the nearby receiving barn and saw flames. He says he hollered to his workmates and they rushed over. Prado told his story at the encouragement of Kentucky HBPA Hispanic Liaison Julio Rubio, who helped with translation.

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According to those at the scene, Prado jumped into action and one by one retrieved the six racehorses, getting them out by their halters without a lead shank and handing them to his colleagues, who then found empty stalls for the horses.

Prado estimated it took “two or three minutes” to get the six horses out. Five minutes later, he said the barn was completely immersed in flames. Seven fire departments assisted in extinguishing the fire.

“These acts of bravery are a testament to the real folks who represent this industry in largely unseen capacities and actions,” said Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork. “To do what they did, to run into a building engulfed in flames — and then go about their business as if nothing ever happened, like what they did wasn't anything out of the ordinary — they're true heroes with their totally selfless acts of courage.

“These are two unbelievable stories that happened in a one-day span that you could never even imagine. But it shows how much the people in this game really do care when it comes to taking care of these horses, including Wes and Jack chasing the filly down a highway. You can't make it up.”

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