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Aug. 2 Insights

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WELL-RELATED JUVENILES MEET AT ELLIS

5th-ELP, $37K, Msw, 2yo, 7f, 3:42p.m.

KING FURY (Curlin) is the most expensive of the several well-related juveniles making their career bows in this test as a $950,000 FTSAUG purchase. He is the first and only foal out of the late Grade I winner Taris (Flatter), a $2.35-million FTKNOV buy. His second dam Comedy, a $1.5-million KEENOV buy, also produced SW & MGSP Theatre Star (War Front). Dale Romans unveils the latest offspring out of blue hen C.S. Royce (Unbridled’s Song), who has been very good for his stable, in Loumo (Uncle Mo). The colt is a half-sister to GI Preakness S. runner-up Cherry Wine (Paddy O’Prado), GSW Sweeping Paddy (Paddy O’Prado) and SW C.S. Incharge (Take Charge Indy). Whitham Thoroughbreds homebred Milliken (Into Mischief) is out of another very productive mare. Ivory Empress is also the dam of MGSW & GISP McCraken (Ghostzapper), GSW Four Graces (Majesticperfection) and MGSP Bondurant (War Front). Ian Wilkes saddles that colt, as well as $340,000 KEENOV buy Bourbon Thunder (Quality Road), who is out of a half-sister to GISW Summer Colony (Summer Squall). TJCIS PPs

BROWN UNVEILS PRICEY UNCLE MO FILLY

6th-SAR, $72K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 4:04p.m.

Peter Brant went to $575,000 at KEESEP to acquire MO DEAN (Uncle Mo), who makes her first trip to the post in this test. Her dam is a half-sister to GSW Mo Tom (Uncle Mo), SW & MGISP Beautician (Dehere), MGSW Red Ruby (Tiznow) and SW Bella Castani (Big Brown). Woodslane Farm homebred Malibu Curl (Curlin) also debuts in this spot. She hails from the family of MGISW A.P. Indian (Indian Charlie), MGSW Doctor Mounty (Street Sense) and GSW Tiz Shea D (Tiznow). TJCIS PPs

EXPENSIVE MEDAG FILLY DEBUTS IN SOCAL

7th-DMR, $55K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5f, 8:00p.m.

Richard Mandella unveils a pricey daughter of Medaglia d’Oro in MOONLIGHT D’ORO. Her second dam is GSW Moonlight Sonata (Carson City), who is the dam of graded winners Wilburn (Bernardini) ands Beethoven (Sky Mesa) and stakes winner & GSP LA Appasionata (Bernardini). Fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Hollendorfer saddles another intriguing firster in Frosted Blue (Frosted). Out of GISP Sister Girl Blues (Hold for Gold), she is a half-sister to GSW & MGISP Firing Line (Line of David). He also hails from the family of Grade I winners Bowie’s Hero (Artie Schiller) and Sharp Azteca (Freud). TJCIS PPs

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Factor This, Mr. Misunderstood Headline Cox Contingent For Sunday’s Kentucky Downs Preview

There have been nine total stakes run in the first two years of Ellis Park's Kentucky Downs Preview Day, with trainer Brad Cox winning three and no other trainer winning more than one. Cox can pad that stat Sunday as he sends out four horses in the five $100,000 turf stakes designed as launching pads to big-money races at Kentucky Downs' all-grass meet.

The Cox arsenal is headlined by Factor This, who will try to repeat in the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup, and Mr. Misunderstood, who won the inaugural Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile in 2018 and was third last year. (Cox also won the 2018 Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Cup with Arklow, who in his next start captured Kentucky Downs' $750,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup.)

Gaining Ground Racing's Factor This, a $62,500 claim two years ago, has already surpassed last year's breakout season, when he won three races and finished fourth after setting the pace in the 1 1/2-mile Kentucky Turf Cup, whose purse was upped to $1 million last year. Factor This started his 5-year-old season with a third but has ripped off three stakes wins since, sweeping New Orleans' Grade 3 Fair Grounds Stakes and Grade 2 Muniz Memorial before taking Churchill Downs' Grade 2, 1 1/16-mile Wise Dan in his last start.

Cox is using the Ellis stakes as a prep for Churchill Downs' $1 million Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic on the delayed Kentucky Derby card Sept. 5. That Grade 1 stakes is 1 1/8 miles, with Cox believing the 1 1/4-mile at Ellis is a better setup than running in the mile stakes as a prep.

“We didn't want to go from the Wise Dan and give him all the time” in between, Cox said. “He had some time between the Muniz and the Wise Dan, and we believed the 1 1/4 mile-and-a-quarter race would fit in well on the schedule in terms of trying to make the race Derby Day. He likes to be able to break and clear off if given the opportunity, and you're going to be able to do that at a mile and a quarter more than a mile. I think his perfect distance is a mile and an eighth.”

Once put on turf, Mr. Misunderstood stamped himself among the best turf milers in the Midwest, winning eight stakes in 2017-2018. An illness hampered his 2019 season, but Mr. Misunderstood seemed to be back to form in winning Churchill Downs' Grade 3 River City for the second year in a row last November. Three races this year have been disappointments but have shown a progression, most recently a second in a tough Churchill Downs allowance race won by Preview Tourist Mile rival Spectacular Gem.

“He's run good,” Cox said. “He's had two races off the (four-month) layoff. The (handicapping) numbers are solid. He's won this race before. He's doing well. I'm happy with the way he's training. I think with a good trip, he'll be effective.”

Cox has Vanbrugh in the RUNHAPPY Preview Turf Sprint, Juddmonte Farm's 5-year-old gelding making his second start in the U.S. after racing in Europe. Vanbrugh was second in his American debut, a 1 1/16-mile Churchill allowance race that also was his first start in ninth months. Cox thinks the Ellis race's 5 1/2-furlong distance will be a bit short, but the goal is to get Vanbrugh to the $700,000 RUNHAPPY Turf Sprint at six furlongs at Kentucky Downs.

Meadow Dance comes into the Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Sprint for Cox off of a second in Prairie Meadows' Iowa Distaff at 1 1/16 miles. A six-furlong specialist, she's trying turf and 5 1/2 furlongs for the first time.

Looking ahead to Aug. 9, Cox said he and owner Godolphin are “leaning toward” running Indiana Derby winner Shared Sense in the $200,000 RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Derby. “Right now I'd say we're pointing toward Ellis,” Cox said, adding of Keeneland's Toyota Blue Grass winner Art Collector, “We'll have to step up. Maybe if we move forward and that horse regresses we can beat him.”

Shared Sense was second to Art Collector in an inordinately tough four-horse allowance race at Churchill Downs.

Ellis Park will stage an all-turf Pick 5 on Sunday's stakes, which on Thursday drew a total of 55 entries: an overflow 13 in the Preview Ladies Turf, capacity 12 in the Preview Turf Cup and Preview Tourist Mile, 10 in the Preview Ladies Sprint and eight in the Preview Turf Sprint.
The $100,000 purse for each race includes $25,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund. The purse money for the stakes was generated at Kentucky Downs and transferred to Ellis Park in an arrangement with the horsemen's group at both tracks, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

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July 31 Insights

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SON OF INTERRUPTED DEBUTS AT ELLIS

7th-ELP, $37K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2fT, 4:40p.m.

COMMITTED (More Than Ready), a $325,000 KEESEP purchase by Tracy Farmer, makes his career bow at Ellis Friday for Mark Casse. The dark bay is the first foal out of MSW & GSP Interrupted (Broken Vow), who is a daughter of MSW & MGSP Alternate (Seattle Slew). Interrupted, who was purchased by Jane Lyon for $575,000 in foal to Distorted Humor at the 2018 KEENOV sale, is a half-sister to GISW Higher Power (Medaglia d’Oro) and MGSW Alternation (Distorted Humor). This is also the family of Canadian Horse of the Year Peaks and Valleys (Mt. Livermore). TJCIS PPs

BAFFERT UNVEILS PRICEY STREET SENSE

5th-DMR, $50K, Msw, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 7:00p.m.

Bob Baffert unveils the next in a long line of pricey juveniles in HAPPIER (Street Sense), who was purchased by Susan and Charlie Chu’s Baoma Corp for $800,000 at KEESEP. The bay is a half-sister to Grade III winner King Zachary (Curlin). The Hall of Famer also saddles third timer Himiko (American Pharoah), a $1-million FTKNOV buy, who was most recently second when switched from turf to dirt at Santa Anita June 21. TJCIS PPs

WELL-BRED MEDAGLIA FILLY MAKES CAREER BOW IN SOCAL

8th-DMR, $50K, Msw, 2yo, f, 1mT, 8:30p.m.

LNJ Foxwoods’ blue-blooded homebred IVY LEAGUE (Medaglia d’Oro) heads to the post for the first time here for Hall of Famer Richard Mandella. She is the first foal out of SW & GISP With Honors (War Front), who is a half-sister to GSW Dreamologist (Tapit) and GISP stallion Fast Anna (Medaglia d’Oro). Ivy League’s third dam is champion Dreaming of Anna (Rahy), who is a full-sister to MGSW Lewis Michael and a half to MGSW Justenuffhumor (Distorted Humor). TJCIS PPs

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Grade 1-Winning Sprinter Hog Creek Hustle To Try Grass At Ellis Park

Hog Creek Hustle will have a homecoming of sorts when the 4-year-old colt runs in Sunday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park.

Something Special Racing's Hog Creek Hustle started off his racing career with a bang two years ago at Ellis Park, rallying from near-last at five-eighths of a mile to win his debut. That proved a banner 2-year-old crop of Ellis-raced horses in 2018, with Hog Creek Hustle the next year taking Belmont Park's Woody Stephens to join Serengeti Empress (Kentucky Oaks), Knicks Go (Claiborne Breeders' Futurity) and Henley's Joy (Belmont Derby) as the winners of Grade 1 races, those designated as the best races in America. (Volatile, another current 4-year-old, didn't race at Ellis at 2 but won his career debut at the track last year and recently won Saratoga's Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt.)

“He broke his maiden there — it's going to be old-home week” at Ellis Park, said Patty Tipton, Hog Creek Hustle's co-owner who grew up in Hog Creek, Ky. and now lives in Lexington. “I hope Como's is open.”

(Yes, House of Como is open for business, though the iconic Evansville eatery just a few furlongs from Ellis Park is closed on Sundays.)

Hog Creek Hustle will try to gain his first victory since the seven-furlong Woody Stephens, which provided trainer Vickie Foley with her first Grade 1 victory. The colt has run well in most of his starts since then while tackling some of the toughest sprinters and milers in the country. That includes his nose defeat in Saratoga's Grade 1 Allen Jerkens last summer.

In search of regaining the Hog Creek karma, Foley is trying the colt on the grass for the first time in the Preview Tourist Mile. The stakes' winner gets an entry fees-paid spot in Kentucky Downs' $750,000 Tourist Mile on Sept. 7. Sunday's Preview Day features five $100,000 turf stakes that all are automatic qualifiers for the corresponding races at Kentucky Downs, for which the fields will be set Thursday. The Ellis Park stakes are funded by purse money generated at Kentucky Downs as part of an arrangement with the tracks' horsemen's group, the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association.

Hog Creek Hustle will be racing around two turns Sunday for the first time since he finished eighth in last year's Louisiana Derby, ending any Kentucky Derby aspirations that had been fueled by his second- and fourth-place finishes in a pair of earlier prep races in New Orleans. Both those graded stakes were won by War of Will, the eventual Preakness winner who several weeks ago became a Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf after taking Keeneland's Maker's Mark Mile on grass.

“We've been wanting to try him on turf,” Foley said. “I think that's a good place to try him and see how he handles it. If we're ever going to try him, this is the time…. He kind of has some high action. We're hoping he'll like it. And if he's going to like it at all, I think he'll like it at Ellis, because you don't have to be a true turf horse to run on that track.”

Tipton, one of five partners in the horse, is hoping grass does for Hog Creek Hustle what it did for War of Will in a career reboot.

“He ran right behind War of Will, and War of Will took to the turf,” she said. “We're excited to see what he can do.”

Hog Creek Hustle will be ridden by Rafael Bejarano, whose 12 victories lead the Ellis meet, with Miguel Mena second in the standings with eight.

The 130-mile ship from Churchill Downs Sunday might seem like a mere jog around the block to the well-traveled Hog Creek Hustle, who this year has left his home base to run in Florida, Arkansas and most recently New York. While the Big Apple previously was very good to the colt, that was not the case in Belmont Park's prestigious Metropolitan Mile, when he was last of eight but still lost by only a combined 6 1/2 lengths to the impressive front-runner Vekoma.

“He stumbled pretty badly out of the gate and pulled a back shoe off,” Foley said. “The jock took him to the inside, which the instructions were to stay on the outside. He still ran a good race against those kind of horses.”

Hog Creek Hustle has a 3-5-2 record in 18 starts for earnings of $638,967 along with priceless experiences for his crew.

“It's just been a very exciting adventure,” said Tipton, who with her partners purchased Hog Creek Hustle for $150,000 at Keeneland's 2017 September yearling sale. “We had no idea this horse was going to take us here. But he has. We want him to win again, because he hasn't won since the Woody Stephens. He's done really well as far as being second and third and he's been to every racetrack in America, almost. He's been a hard-knocking horse. I think this horse can run on the turf. I think he will love the mile on the turf. I think he'll be happy to be back home where he broke his maiden.”

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