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Trio Of Cross Country Stakes Wins Net Florent Geroux Jockey Of The Week Title

With two stakes wins at Canterbury Park and a graded stakes win at Churchill Downs, Florent Geroux was voted Jockey of the Week for June 21 through June 27. The award, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 active riders in the United States as well as retired and permanently disabled jockeys.

Geroux doesn't travel to Canterbury Park often to ride, but on Wednesday evening with four mounts during the Northern Stars Turf Festival he won two stakes with a second and third. The team of Trainer Brad Cox and Geroux won the Curtis Simpson Oaks with Saranya who went off as the favorite in the field of nine 3-year-old fillies. She raced three deep while tracking the leaders on the backstretch, taking command at the furlong marker and held off a late charge from Amalfi Princess with a final time 1:35.04 for the mile.

Cox and Geroux struck again in the Mystic Lake Mile for 3-year-olds and up with Hieronymus. The second choice in the field of nine, Geroux had Hieronymus forwardly placed just off the pacesetter racing to the backstretch. He closed the gap through the stretch to prevail by a nose on the wire in 1:32.93, establishing a new track record for the mile.

Returning to Churchill Downs on Saturday, the Cox/Geroux team went postward with Set Piece (GB) in the Grade 2 Wise Dan for 4-year-olds an up. Somelikeithotbrown was on the lead early, while Set Piece (GB) ran in ninth. At the head of the lane, Set Piece (GB) closed ground while still seven lengths behind Somelikeithotbrown. Inside the eighth pole, Geroux guided Set Piece (GB) inside to rally past Somelikeithotbrown to win by a half-length in 1:40.50 for the one and one-sixteenth mile turf contest.

“He's a very nice horse,” Geroux said. “No matter where he comes from, inside or outside, he always seems to rally late. Turning for home, he gave me his best run.”

Weekly statistics for Geroux were 29-9-9-2 for a 31 percent win rate and total purse earning of $912,280.

Geroux out-polled fellow riders Brian Hernandez, Jr. with two stakes wins, Miguel Mena who won the Grade 3 Ohio Derby, Jose Ortiz with two graded stakes wins and John Velazquez also with two stakes wins.

Geroux plans to ride full time at Ellis Park this summer with occasional trips to Saratoga or Del Mar.

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Set Piece Rallies From Back of The Pack To Win Wise Dan Stakes At Churchill Downs

Weaving through horses like a car on a busy freeway, Florent Geroux moved Juddmonte's Set Piece from near the back of the ten-horse field to catch Somelikeithotbrown in the stretch and win the Grade 2 Wise Dan Stakes by a half-length at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. On a firm turf course, Set Piece overcame a disadvantageous start to find a hole on the hedge and pull out the win for trainer Brad Cox, who was leading all trainers going into the spring meet's final day.

At the start, Set Piece, breaking from post one, found himself squeezed back to next to last when several horses came over to find running positions for the first half of the race. Somelikeithotbrown, fresh off his winning performance in the Grade 2 Dinner Party Stakes on Pimlico's Preakness Stakes undercard, took the lead, with a half length back to Field Pass in second and then another two lengths back to Mutakatif in third.

Somelikeithotbrown maintained that lead through the stretch as Geroux moved Set Piece through the middle of the field, going first to the middle of the pack and then ducking to the inside of Mutakatif to take advantage of space on the hedge. Set Piece accelerated, closing the gap between him and Somelikeithotbrown. Jose Ortiz got Somelikeithotbrown to rally and try to hold off Set Piece, but the Juddmonte gelding was too much for the son of Big Brown. Set Piece passed Somelikeithotbrown in the race's final yards, hitting the wire a half-length in front. The time for the mile and a sixteenth G2 Wise Dan was 1:40.50.

Find this race's chart here.

Set Piece paid $5.40, $3.40, and $2.40. Somelikeithotbrown paid $3.80 and $2.80. Ride a Comet paid $3.00 to show.

Owned and bred by Juddmonte Farm, Set Piece was sired by Dansili out of Portodora, by King Mambo. His win in the G2 Wise Dan Stakes is his third win in five starts this year, with two other wins at Churchill Downs, the Douglas Park Overnight Stakes and the Opening Verse Overnight Stakes. Set Piece has nine wins in 16 lifetime starts for earnings of $300,996.

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Set Piece, Somelikeithotbrown Set To Clash In Saturday’s Wise Dan

Juddmonte's multiple stakes winner Set Piece (GB) along with Skychai Racing and Sand Dollar Stable's two-time Grade 2 winner Somelikeithotbrown lead a field of 10 older horses that was entered in Saturday's $300,000 Wise Dan (G2) at Churchill Downs.

Named after multiple champion and two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan, the 32nd running of the 1 1/16-mile turf event goes as Race 10 of 12 with a post time of 5:26 p.m. (all times Eastern). First post is 12:45 p.m. The Wise Dan is one of seven stakes events on the fantastic closing day card at Churchill Downs. The program also features the $600,000 Stephen Foster (G2), $300,000 Fleur de Lis (G2), $150,000 Bashford Manor (G3), $150,000 Debutante (Listed), $150,000 Tepin and $150,000 War Chant.

Set Piece (GB), trained by Brad Cox, enters the Wise Dan on a two-race win streak. The 5-year-old gelded son of Dansili (GB) cruised to a dominating four-length victory in last month's $85,000 Douglas Park Overnight Stakes, the local prep for the Wise Dan. In his previous start, Set Piece (GB) defeated a field of eight in the one-mile $105,000 Opening Verse. Set Piece (GB) was formerly under the care of Hugo Palmer in Europe prior to Juddmonte shipping him to the U.S. in 2020. Overall, Set Piece (GB) has recorded eight wins from 15 starts with earnings of $257,044. Florent Geroux has the return call from the rail.

Two posts to the outside of Set Piece (GB) is seven-time winner Somelikeithotbrown. Trained by Mike Maker, Somelikeithotbrown won the $200,000 Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park in 2019. More recently, the son of Big Brown recorded a one-length win in the $250,000 Dinner Party Stakes (G2) at Pimlico on the Preakness Stakes undercard. Jockey Jose Ortiz will have the call.

Other accomplished horses entered in the Wise Dan are Three Diamonds Farm's three-time Grade 3 winner Field Pass; and John Oxley and My Meadowview Farm's $175,000 Kennedy Road (G2) winner and $300,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1) runner-up Ride a Comet.

The complete field for the Wise Dan from the rail out (with jockey and trainer):

Set Piece (GB) (Geroux, Cox)
Mutakatif (IRE) (Mitchell Murrill, Alberta Davies)
Somelikeithotbrown (Ortiz, Maker)
Super Sol (Gabriel Saez, Juan Cano)
Hierarchy (Adam Beschizza, Joe Sharp)
Kentucky Ghost (Rafael Bejarano, Vicki Oliver)
Ride a Comet (Tyler Gaffalione, Mark Casse)
Field Pass (Ricardo Santana Jr., Maker)
Spooky Channel (John Velazquez, Jason Barkley)
In Love (BRZ) (Joe Talamo, Paulo Lobo)

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