fulsome | Horse Racing Free Tips

Last early, Juddmonte Farms' homebred Into Mischief colt Fulsome took command with an eighth of a mile to run and pulled away by 3 3/4 lengths under jockey Florent Geroux to win Saturday's Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes for 3-year-olds at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky,

Trained by Brad Cox, Fulsome ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:42.88 and paid $5.40 to win as the 8-5 favorite in his third consecutive victory. Second betting choice at 9-5, O Besos, coming off a fifth-place finish in the G1 Kentucky Derby, was second, with the Derby's eighth-place finisher, Helium, third at 5-2 odds.

Southern Passage, Ready to Pounce, Game Day Play and Sittin On Go completed the order of finish. Hello Hot Rod was scratched.

Helium, winner of the G2 Tampa Bay Derby in March, set the fractions, going :23.75, :48.69 and 1:13.26 for the first six furlongs under Julien Leparoux. Longshot Game Day Play applied pressure under David Cohen, with O Besos making a move on the leaders on the turn for home.

Fulsome began moving up approaching the far turn, rallied wide into the stretch and won geared down at the end after passing the mile marker in 1:36.78.

“I was pretty confident he could take some dirt in his face and got him to relax early,” said Geroux. “I was just hoping they were going fast up front after the slow break. He was able to go past those horses easily to win.”

This was the third consecutive victory for Fulsome, who made his first four starts on turf, winning just once in a maiden race at Fair Grounds on Jan. 16, 2021. He made his dirt debut at Keeneland on April 10 in a race that was taken off the turf because of rain. He drew off that day to win by 3 1/2 lengths in the slop and and came three weeks later to win the $300,000 Oaklawn Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths at Oaklawn Park.

“He had two solid works here at Churchill after winning the Oaklawn Stakes,” said Cox. “We were very confident in him by the way he was training. He got off a step slow but he really finished up fast today and was impressive doing so.”

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Bernard Racing, Tagg Team Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Terry Stephens' Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) fifth-place finisher O Besos headlines a field of eight 3-year-olds that were entered in Saturday's $150,000 Matt Winn (G3) – one of seven stakes events on the 11-race Stephen Foster Preview Day card at Churchill Downs.

The 1 1/16-mile Matt Winn shares the Saturday spotlight with the $150,000 Regret (G3), $150,000 Aristides (Listed), $150,000 Blame, $150,000 Shawnee, $150,000 Audubon and $110,000 Douglas Park Overnight Stakes. The action-packed program gets underway at 12:45 p.m. (all times Eastern) and the Matt Winn is carded as Race 9 at 4:55 p.m.

O Besos, a 3-year-old son of Orb, closed into the early Kentucky Derby pace but flattened in the final furlong to cross the wire fifth. Trained by Greg Foley, O Besos had several options on the table following the Derby but opted to stay at Churchill Downs for the Matt Winn.

“We love running at Churchill and this race gives us plenty of options going forward,” Foley said. “He worked an easy half-mile (in :49) Monday morning and is doing well from the Derby. We can lead him over for the race right from Barn 11.”

Jockey Marcelino Pedroza, who rode O Besos to a third-place finish in the $1 million TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) and in the Kentucky Derby, has the call in the Matt Winn from post No. 3.

Chief among O Besos' rivals in the Matt Winn is D J Stable's $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner Helium. The Mark Casse trainee finished 10th in the Kentucky Derby. He'll be ridden in Saturday's race by Julien Leparoux from post 2.

Also entered in the Matt Winn field is Juddmonte's $300,000 Oaklawn Stakes winner Fulsome. Trained by Brad Cox, Fulsome broke his maiden on turf but was transitioned to dirt in April at Keeneland when a first-level allowance event changed surfaces due to inclement weather. Fulsome defeated six rivals by 3 ½ lengths that day, which catapulted him to a 1 ¼-length win in the Oaklawn Stakes on May 1.

Florent Geroux has the mount from post 5.

The complete field for the Matt Winn (from the rail out with jockey and trainer): Ready to Pounce (Brian Hernandez Jr., Neil Pessin); Helium (Leparoux, Casse); O Besos (Pedroza, Foley); Southern Passage (Corey Lanerie, Dale Romans); Fulsome (Geroux, Cox); Hello Hot Rod (Francisco Arrieta, Caio Caramori); Sittin On Go (Joe Talamo, Romans); and Game Day Play (David Cohen, Robertino Diodoro).

Churchill Downs' admission gates will open Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and tickets, starting at $5, are available on www.ChurchillDowns.com/tickets. For those outside the Louisville area, all 11 races are scheduled to be televised on Fox Sports 2 from 12:30-6 p.m. Fans can also watch the live simulcast feed and wager on www.TwinSpires.com, the official ADW of Churchill Downs Incorporated.

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