rafael bejarano | Horse Racing Free Tips

Bodexpress Upsets Clark At 11-1 For First Career Stakes Win; Eyes Pegasus Next

Bodexpress, who made headlines as the riderless horse in the 2019 Preakness, is now a Grade 1 winner. The 4-year-old colt grabbed the lead with three-sixteenths of a mile to run and turned back a challenge from 8-5 favorite Code of Honor to win Friday's 146^th running of the $500,000 Clark Presented by Norton Healthcare (Grade 1) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., by one length.

Owned by Top Racing LLC (Lucas Noriega), Global Thoroughbred (Rafael Celis) and GDS Racing Stable (Gustavo Delgado), Bodexpress clocked 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:49.12 under jockey Rafael Bejarano, who rode the winner for trainer Gustavo Delgado. Son Gustavo Delgado Jr. was on hand to saddle the winner for his father.

The lofty $282,100 first prize lifted the bay Kentucky-bred's earnings to $694,600 from a record of 4-4-3 in 17 starts.

“This is a different horse than we saw last year during the Triple Crown campaign,” Delgado Jr. said. “He's really matured. Turning for home I thought we had a really good shot. The horse deserves this most of all. I'm very happy for everyone involved but we are so happy for Bodexpress.”

Breaking from post position No. 8 in the full field of 14, Bodexpress was forwardly placed throughout the race. Phantom Currency dictated the early pace (:23.39 and :47.94) and had a 1 ½-length advantage on Bodexpress leaving the first turn into the backstretch run. Mr Freeze found room along the rail and raced alongside Bodexpress. The trio bunched around the far turn and the leader began to fade. Mr Freeze briefly took over after six furlongs in 1:12.77 but Bodexpress made a three-wide move, stuck a nose in front at the three-sixteenths pole and inched clear inside the final furlong. Code of Honor made a four-wide bid down the stretch but did not have enough to get by the winner.

“This horse just showed so much run today,” Bejarano said. “I'm so proud of him. (Phantom Currency) was going so fast on the lead and we were able to sit a really good trip just behind him. He relaxed very nicely for me and turning for home I could feel I still had a lot of horse underneath me. He had a lot of energy in deep stretch when we needed it to hold off the rest of the horses. It's very special winning a race like this returning to Kentucky to ride this year. This is my home and we've had a lot of success here in my career. This was very special.”

Bodexpress, at odds of 11-1, rewarded his backers with mutuels of $25.40, $10.60 and $7. Code of Honor, with John Velazquez up, returned $4 and $3. Owendale, under Florent Geroux, was another length back in third and paid $3.80 to show.

“We got into a good spot on the backstretch in between horses,” Velazquez said of Code of Honor. “We were chasing the speed of (Phantom Currency) and turning for home we didn't have a lot of room. When I finally got a spot to run around the eighth pole, (Bodexpress) kept going and we weren't able to catch him.”

Coastal Defense finished fourth and was followed by Mr Freeze, Silver Prospector, By My Standards, Bourbon Calling, Crafty Daddy, Title Ready, Multiplier, Aurelius Maximus, Plus Que Parfait and Phantom Currency. In Love (BRZ) was scratched from the also-eligible list.

This was the first stakes victory for Bodexpress, who entered the race off a dominating 11 ¼-length allowance win over 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park West on Oct. 17.

Bodexpress qualified to the 2019 Kentucky Derby (GI) as a maiden with a second place finish behind Maximum Security in that year's $1 million Florida Derby (GI). He placed 13^th in the Derby and, two weeks later, unseated jockey John Velazquez when he reared at the start of the Preakness. He galloped around the track far removed from the inner rail and became a social media sensation.

Next up for Bodexpress is a likely run in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup (GI) at Gulfstream on Jan. 23.

Bodexpress is son of Bodemeister out of the City Zip mare Pied a Terre and was bred by Martha Jane Mulholland.

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Bowies Hero Will Have To Fend Off Chad Brown Quartet To Defend His Title In Shadwell Turf Mile

Agave Racing Stable, ERJ Racing, Madaket Stables and Rockin Robin Racing Stable's Bowies Hero will attempt to become the third horse to win the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) in consecutive years when he faces 10 rivals Saturday in the 35th running of the $750,000 race.

The Shadwell Turf Mile is one of five graded stakes on Saturday's 11-race program at Keeneland that begins at 1:05 p.m. ET. The Shadwell Turf Mile is the afternoon's third Grade 1 race and scheduled as the 10th race with a 5:57 p.m. post time.

Trained by Phil D'Amato, Bowies Hero will be trying to join Gio Ponti (2010-2011) and Dumaani (1995-1996) as the only repeat winners in the race that is a “Win and You're In” test for the $2 million Breeders' Cup FanDuel Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF to be run Nov. 7.

Bowies Hero will break from post position four and be ridden by Rafael Bejarano.

To repeat, Bowies Hero will have to get by a quartet of runners trained by Chad Brown headed by two-time Grade 1 winner Raging Bull (FR).

Owned by Peter Brant, Raging Bull returns to Keeneland where he was third beaten a neck in July in the Maker's Mark Mile (G1). Winner of the Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Santa Anita in May to open his 2020 campaign, Raging Bull will be ridden Saturday by Joel Rosario and break from post position six.

Brown's other entrants are William Lawrence's Analyze It, winner of the Transylvania (G3) here in 2018 and fourth in the Shadwell last year; Juddmonte Farms' Flavius, winner of the recent Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs; and, John and Tanya Gunther's Without Parole (GB) who was fourth in the Maker's Mark Mile.

Tyler Gaffalione will ride Analyze It and break from post eight; Flavius will exit post seven and be ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr. while Julien Leparoux has the call on Without Parole who will break from post position three.

The field for the Shadwell Turf Mile, with riders from the inside, is: Casa Creed (Martin Garcia), Halladay (Luis Saez), Without Parole (GB) (Leparoux), Bowies Hero (Bejarano), Born Great (Corey Lanerie), Raging Bull (FR) (Rosario), Flavius (Santana Jr.), Analyze It (Gaffalione), Parlor (Umberto Rispoli), Spectacular Gem (James Graham) and Ivar (BRZ) (Joe Talamo). All starters will carry 126 pounds.

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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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Bejarano ‘Really Happy’ To Be Back At Ellis Park, Winning In Bunches

Rafael Bejarano wants to remind people that he's back in Kentucky after 13 years in California. The jockey's fast start at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., is a good way to do it.

Bejarano, who won the 2003 and 2004 Ellis Park riding crown and 14 meet titles throughout Kentucky, returned to the state this spring to ride at Churchill Downs. He won five races opening week at the RUNHAPPY Summer Meet at Ellis Park and captured another three Friday as racing resumed following a week off while Keeneland ran a five-day meet to make up for the COVID cancelation of the Lexington track's spring meet.

Bejarano won the first race on Sum Overture ($18.40) for trainer Gary House, the third on favored Into the Sunrise ($5.60) for Wesley Ward and the eighth on All West ($15.40) for Ron Moquett. That's good for a meet-leading eight wins, to go along with three seconds and six thirds out of 30 starts — a 27-percent win clip over the first five days.

“I'm really happy. I love this place,” said Bejarano, whose agent is former jockey Julio Espinoza. “It always was one of my favorite places here at Ellis Park. A lot of people just have to know me, just have to remember me. Julio has been doing a really good job, picking the right horses. We've been winning with long shots but it's not about the favorite – it's about the right horses.

“I'm really excited to see how it's going to be ending at this meet. There are a lot of good riders here, a lot of competition. I'm looking forward to finding good horses, coming back to Kentucky and having a little more opportunity than there was in California. The trainers are giving me support, a chance. We're getting busy, and hopefully this weekend we'll have more winners coming up.”

Moquett is among the trainers Bejarano rode for when his career was taking off in Kentucky.

“It's amazing to look up and see the caliber of jockeys that are here right now,” Moquett said. “Having someone like Rafe, who I have experience with and I know his resume, it gives you a lot of confidence. You know whenever you give him a leg up, you're going to get an effort every time.

“It's tough. With Corey Lanerie, Shaun Bridgmohan, Miguel Mena, Julien Leparoux, all these guys are awesome riders. For him to do that (win a bunch of races) back in the day is one thing. But to do it now with all these jockeys that are here — Joe Talamo — I mean, I'd like to see how many of these jockeys have won meets everywhere. To do it against this calibre of competition is probably under-appreciated.”

James Graham is second in the standings with five wins out of 18 mounts. He was unable to ride Friday because his COVID-19 test results did not come back in time. Jockeys and the jockey-room valets were required to have a negative COVID-19 test taken within the prior 48 hours as racing resumed at Ellis Park following the week of racing at Keeneland. Jockeys who leave Kentucky to ride elsewhere must show another negative test upon their return. Out-of-state jockeys wishing to ride at Ellis Park also must have a negative test within 48 hours of race day in order to participate.

Record-setting trainer Chad Brown had his first starter ever at Ellis Park as Shadwell Stable's Motagally finished second to Gus King's All West in the eighth race, a $38,000 allowance race at a mile on dirt. Brown is a regular at Keeneland and has been major presence at Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby Week. However, this year he has added a Kentucky division based at Churchill that is overseen by Whit Beckman, a Louisville product and 2000 graduate of St. Xavier High School. Beckman said the stable might have a couple more horses to run at Ellis Park.

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