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Turf 2-Year-Olds Make a Splash in Bourbon

A field of 14 juveniles look to sort themselves out in Sunday's GII Castle & Key Bourbon S. at Keeneland, a “Win and You're In” qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. Tiz the Bomb (Hit It a Bomb) is one of two stakes-winning juveniles in the field, following up a spectacular 14 1/4-length off-the-turf maiden special weight at Ellis Park July 2 with a hard-fought score in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile S. Sept. 6. As a $330,000 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling, he remains the highest-priced yearling–by nearly $200,000–by his sire and was picked out of the sale by that astute judge of horseflesh, Kenny McPeek. Tiz the Bomb owns the highest Beyer (76) among these young runners and has bulleted in two of his last three works, one bullet each on turf and dirt.

As the only other black-type winner among these nascent runners, Red Danger (Orb) also has a two-race win streak. He overcame bumping and steadying to break his maiden at the Spa, then also came back at Kentucky Downs to edge to a win in the Sept. 9 Global Tote Juvenile Sprint S. Both his victories are on the lawn, but he hasn't gone farther than 6 1/2 furlongs for trainer Brian Lynch.

If Tiz the Bomb falters, McPeek also sends Lucky Boss (Street Boss), who won a July 17 off-the-turf Ellis maiden, then was runner-up Aug. 15 at the same track in the Runhappy Ellis Park Juvenile S. The Bourbon will mark his first start on the grass. Rocket One (Into Mischief) kicked off his career in the deep end, losing on the dirt to eventual GISW Gunite (Gun Runner), then lost to re-opposing Play Action Pass (Cairo Prince) on the turf before winning handily while closing late in a Sept. 6 Kentucky Downs maiden special weight. Play Action Pass was in that same Gunite maiden, beat Rocket One when moving to the lawn, and grudgingly yielded the lead and the win to Tiz the Bomb in the Juvenile Mile S. Heaven Street (Street Sense) has the most starts under his belt with five, and has won two of his last three, all on the grass, with a placing in Woodbine's Soaring Free S.

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Con Lima Heads Competitive Bunch in Saratoga Oaks

Freshly minted Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher sends GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. runner-up Con Lima (Commissioner) to target the GIII Saratoga Oaks Invitational S., the middle jewel of NYRA's Turf Tiara Series and upgraded in its third edition this year to graded status. At 1 3/16 miles, Sunday's Saratoga Oaks is just a hair shorter than the July 10 Belmont Oaks, in which Con Lima led but yielded in the final strides to Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), who hailed from the powerful Aidan O'Brien barn with Group 1 form just two weeks prior in Ireland.

Coming off consecutive victories in Belmont's June 3 GIII Wonder Again S. and Gulfstream's May 1 Honey Ryder S. prior to the Belmont Oaks, Con Lima has the highest Beyer–89–of the American runners in the field. Her record stands at a stellar 11 first- or second-place finishes from 12 starts for her ownership group–Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Joseph F. Graffeo, Eric Nikolaus Del Toro, and Troy Johnson–but she's up against a couple of formidable Europeans in this spot.

Creative Flair (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) hails from the Charlie Appleby stable with three wins from her last five starts. After consecutive mile scores and a mile listed stakes placing in England, she stretched out to 10 furlongs and promptly notched her first stakes win. She shortened up to nine furlongs for the G3 Prix Chloe in France, getting run down at the end for a third. The Godolphin homebred gets Mike Smith in the irons to share morning-line favoritism with Con Lima. Godolphin won this race last year with Antoinette (Hard Spun).

Peter Brant's Rocky Sky (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) has done little wrong, never off the board in four starts in Ireland and now makes her first appearance since a 1 1/4-mile win in a listed event Apr 25. She makes her American debut for new trainer Chad Brown, who has a stunning record with European imports on the stateside lawn.

Lightly raced Higher Truth (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is Brown's other runner here and has improved with every race. A second-out maiden win in April gave way to an allowance victory in June. She parlayed those two victories into a nose third behind Con Lima in her first stakes try in the Belmont Oaks.

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Nine Maiden Winners Seek First Stakes Win in Adirondack

A field of nine maiden special weight winners–eight of them at first asking–line up in search of their first black-type win in the GII Adirondack S. going 6 1/2 panels Sunday at Saratoga. Both Mainstay (Astern {Aus}) and Saucy Lady T (Tonalist) are exiting the July 15 GIII Schuylerville S. over the track, where they finished one-two, respectively, while Ontheonesandtwos (Jimmy Creed) and Wicked Halo (Gun Runner) filled the same spots in the June 26 Debutante S. at Churchill Downs.

Morning-line favorite is Deuce Greathouse, Cindy M. Hutson, Madaket Stables LLC, and Thomas J. Romano's Ontheonesandtwos, who followed up a wide but winning debut with an extremely wide second in the Debutante. A length away from victory, she finished willingly and got an 81 Beyer, co-highest in the Adirondack field. Trainer Norm Casse seeks his first Adirondack win and replaces Florent Geroux with Irad Ortiz, Jr. on the filly.

From the powerful Steve Asmussen stable, who won this race last year with Thoughtfully (Tapit) and has two other Adirondack victories since 2011, Wicked Halo is from the first crop of Asmussen's 2017 Horse of the Year. She shares the co-highest 81 Beyer in the field, notched in her debut at Lone Star June 5, and set the pace after bobbling at the start of the Debutante but yielded late. A homebred for Winchell Thoroughbreds, her 79 Beyer that day keeps her in the hunt here.

Butch Reid, Jr.'s Mainstay made headlines before her debut as a half-sister to last year's 2-year-old filly champion Vequist (Nyquist), then backed it up with a June 4 first-asking graduation by 7 3/4 lengths in the slop at Monmouth. She subsequently stumbled at the Schuylerville start and couldn't catch the loose-on-the-lead winner, but chased her in second all the way around and held her spot by daylight at the wire. Swilcan Stable LLC and LC Racing campaign the filly, who switches to a new rider in Joel Rosario.

Tom Amoss sends Joel Politi's Microbiome (Twirling Candy), the sole runner in the field with a win over the surface. She aired in the second race on opening day, went straight to the front, and never looked back to graduate by 5 1/2 lengths.

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Weld the Focus on Sunday

The Curragh takes centre stage on Sunday, with the G3 Weld Park S. the feature as Angel Palm (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) bids to put her 2-year-old peers in the shade. Last seen winning by three lengths in a Leopardstown maiden over this seven-furlong trip Aug. 13, Khalid Abdullah’s relative of Showcasing (GB) and Camacho (GB) has the look of one of Ger Lyons’s burgeoning stars. She meets the Sept. 12 Listed Ingabelle S. No Speak Alexander (Ire) (Shalaa {Ire}), with Ballydoyle’s Ingabelle winner Monday (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) a late scratch just two days after a disappointing fourth in Newmarket’s G2 Rockfel S. The Sept. 11 Limerick maiden winner Thinking of You (American Pharoah) sports the Tabor silks and warrants maximum respect from the Joseph O’Brien stable which houses two of the best of this generation in Thunder Moon (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) and Pretty Gorgeous (Fr) (Lawman {Fr}).

Also on the card is the G3 Comer Group International Loughbrown S., where The Aga Khan’s smart stayer Kastasa (Ire) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}) is fitted with a visor following her third placing in Naas’s G3 Stanerra S. Aug. 23. Successful by seven lengths in this 12 months ago, the Dermot Weld-trained homebred encounters Ballydoyle’s June 27 G1 Irish Derby third Dawn Patrol (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who was sixth in the G1 St Leger at Doncaster Sept. 12.

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