Gear Jockey Delivers Course-Record Performance In Kentucky Downs’ Turf Sprint

On Calumet Saturday at Kentucky Downs, the farm's homebred Gear Jockey delivered a timely performance to triumph in the Grade 3 FanDuel Turf Sprint. Crossing the wire 2 1/2 lengths the best at odds of 5-1, Gear Jockey lowered the track record for six furlongs by over a second: his final time was 1:07.90 over the firm turf. Jose Lezcano piloted the Rusty Arnold trainee to victory.

The 4-year-old son of Twirling Candy earned the first graded stakes victory of his career in the Turf Sprint, as well as an expenses-paid berth to the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November.

Third by a length in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf as a maiden, Gear Jockey has continued to improve with age. The colt broke his maiden in January of 2021, and hadn't run worse than fourth in seven starts this year as he entered the starting gate at Kentucky Downs. Most recently, Gear Jockey ran third after a poor start in the G3 Troy Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 6.

Coming from well off the pace that day, Gear Jockey was much closer to the pace in this pace-less edition of the Turf Sprint. Bombard grabbed the lead at the start, and Lezcano kept Gear Jockey right on his heels through fractions of :22.38 and :45.14. Rounding the far turn Gear Jockey drew even with the frontrunner, and Lezcano sent him up the hill to the wire an easy winner by 2 1/2 lengths.

Diamond Oops, also up close early, made up ground in the lane to out-finish Bombard by a nose for the place. Troy Stakes winner Fast Boat finished another head back in fourth. Race-favorite Got Stormy, the filly taking on the males, finished sixth, beaten 3 1/4 lengths.

Bred in Kentucky by owner Brad Kelley's Calumet Farm, Gear Jockey is out of the winning Tapit mare Switching Gears, from the family of Grade 1 winner Stroll. Calumet purchased the mare with Gear Jockey in utero for $20,000 at the 2017 Keeneland January sale. With a record of four wins, two seconds, and five fifths from 15 career starts, Gear Jockey has earned a total of $902,875.

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‘We’ve Never Backed Down From A Challenge’: Got Stormy To Face Males Again In Kentucky Downs’ Turf Sprint

Got Stormy, fresh off her second triumph in three years in Saratoga's Grade 1 Fourstardave against males, is returning to Kentucky Downs for her next start on Sept. 11. But in a twist, Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse doesn't plan to run the 6-year-old mare in The Mint Ladies Sprint that she won last year but back against the boys in the $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint.

Both races are part of Kentucky Downs' blockbluster Sept. 11 card featuring five graded stakes.

The six-furlong FanDuel Turf Sprint (G3), part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, offers $400,000 more in purse money than the $600,000 Ladies Sprint (G3) at 6 1/2 furlongs. The FanDuel winner also receives an automatic, fees-paid berth in the $1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 6 at Del Mar. But that doesn't seem the overarching motivation for taking the tougher route.

“Obviously, she's not afraid of colts,” Casse said Tuesday evening. “I really don't think it matters if she runs 6 or 6 1/2 furlongs. We've never backed down from a challenge.” And, too, he said, “It is a much bigger purse.”

But more than the money, the owners and Casse welcome an opportunity to add to the legacy of Got Stormy, who already was the only female to win the Fourstardave, that coming for the first time in 2019. No filly or mare has won Kentucky Downs' Turf Sprint, first run in 1998.

“Doing things that others haven't done,” Casse said. “I think we're wanting to prove that she is one of the elite turf mares of this century. Maybe with her Fourstardave, another (win against males) might get her into the Hall of Fame.”

Got Stormy has won 12 of 30 starts, with five seconds and three thirds, and $2,398,403 in purse earnings. In addition to her Fourstardave victories, Got Stormy has finished second four times against males in Grade 1 stakes in New York, California and Canada.

Casse said Got Stormy will target the $2 million Breeders' Cup Mile on turf, a race for which she already received a “Win And You're In” spot from the Fourstardave victory. Got Stormy finished second in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

The only reason Casse ran her in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint last year at Keeneland was his belief that the mare isn't as effective at a mile if the turf is not firm, which can often be the case in Kentucky in the fall. In preparation for shortening up, he ran Got Stormy in last year's Ladies Sprint at Kentucky Downs, her first time racing less than 7 1/2 furlongs since her first start in 2017. She won by 3 1/4 lengths over soft turf.

Soft turf should not be a factor back in California. Got Stormy also is 1-for-1 at Del Mar, winning the Grade 1 Matriarch.

Spendthrift Farm paid $2.75 million for Got Stormy at Fasig-Tipton's November sale and campaigns the mare with My Racehorse Stable, which sells micro-shares in stakes-quality horses to allow thousands of people to experience participating at the top end of the game. Gary Barber was her previous owner.

Got Stormy started her 2021 season with victory in Gulfstream Park's Grade 3 Honey Fox. However, she came into the Fourstardave off a pair of fifth-place finishes at Churchill Downs and Belmont Park. Casse and jockey Tyler Gaffalione were not among those assuming the mare finally lost a step to age.

“Just kind of the way she trained,” Casse said of his confidence. “Then Tyler made me feel really good, too, because he breezed her about two weeks out. He came back with the biggest smile and said, 'She's back.' After I saddled her Saturday and she was walking around in the paddock, I looked at (Spendthrift general manager) Ned Toffey and said, 'They better be tied on. Because she's got her game face on today.'”

Off at 12-1 odds, Got Stormy beat Set Piece by 1 1/2 lengths.

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My Boanerges Favored In Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint At Ellis

Trainer Dallas Keen shipped My Boanerges almost 700 miles from Oklahoma's Remington Park to Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., to run for less money and tougher competition than if he'd sent the 5-year-old gelding to Albuquerque to race against fellow New Mexico-breds.

My Boanerges is the 3-1 favorite in Saturday's $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint at the RUNHAPPY Ellis Park Meet. He enters off two stakes victories against open company in his last two starts at Texas' Lone Star Park, including beating the Preview Turf Sprint's 7-2 second choice Archidust in his previous race.

“For a sprinter, he's probably the best I've had,” said Keen, who began training in 1986. “I just know the horse. He's going to give me his all.”

With $25,000 of the Turf Sprint's purse reserved for Kentucky-breds through Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements, My Boanerges is running for $75,000. Had Keen chosen to wait two weeks and ship only 545 miles to The Downs at Albuquerque, the gelding probably would be no higher odds than 1-to-5 in the $100,000 Casey Darnell restricted to New Mexico-breds at the same 5 1/2-furlong distance on dirt.

But Keen and owners Nancy and David Lock are looking at an even bigger prize: The Preview Turf Sprint winner gets an automatic fees-paid spot in Kentucky Downs' $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint, which in turn is a “Win And You're In” qualifier for a free spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar. Horses that aren't Kentucky-breds still compete for $550,000 – America's richest turf sprint outside the Breeders' Cup — in the Grade 3 FanDuel race.

However, if the Kentucky Downs stakes gets an overflow field, which is quite possible, preference is given to graded-stakes winners. My Boanerges hasn't had the opportunity to even run in a graded stakes, which are in relative short supply in the turf sprint division.

“The Locks started noticing the race at Kentucky Downs,” Keen said at Ellis Park Thursday. “Then we found out about this race, a win-and-you're in for Kentucky Downs. Him not having any graded-stakes money, we knew if we were going to dream big about the Breeders' Cup, we were going to need some graded money or go a different route.”

This weekend's seven Preview stakes providing a path to Kentucky Downs “opens the door to horses that might get (stuck) on the side because they don't have the graded money,” Keen said.

By the way, Keen says Boanerges “is a word out of the Bible, a nickname for a couple of Jesus' disciples.” That's James and John, according to online dictionaries, with Boanerges meaning “son of thunder” in Ancient Greek from Hebrew. Today it also means a preacher or orator.

My Boanerges has certainly provided thunder on the racetrack. After a third in his debut before which he got loose on the track at New Mexico's Zia Park, the gelding has never been worse than second in 10 starts, with seven victories. He went to the sidelines after his 3-year-old year, before missing his entire 4-year-old season.

My Boanerges' misfortunate proved a happy turn of events for Keen, who was stabling in Houston at the time.

“A few years back, I'd trained for the Locks,” he said. “When the COVID shut down racing in New Mexico, they contacted me. He was coming off a layoff. By the time we had him ready to run, he'd been off almost a year and a half.”

My Boanerges had never before raced on turf. The gelding finished second in his first two starts at the Dallas-Fort Worth area's Lone Star Park, including an off-the-turf allowance race, then swept the two stakes, one of which also came off the turf.

“Just didn't really know,” My Boanerges' preferred surface, Keen said. “And, too, a lot of times you enter for turf and you run in the mud anyway. Didn't really know if he liked mud, either. The first time he ran on turf, it was obvious his first few jumps that he liked it.”

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Keen believes the speedster will be content to rate behind a horse if necessary.

“The first time I ran him coming off the layoff, a horse kind of acted up in the gate,” he said. “He turned his head right when they popped the gates. Normally he's on the lead. But he actually came from off the pace that day and ran second, got beat a head. He'll stay running, even if he's not on the lead.”

Have we seen his fastest? “It seems like he keeps getting better to me,” Keen said. “He's happy right now.”

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