Two years ago, trainer Terry Brennan brought Siem Riep to Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., for the Kentucky Downs Preview's mile stakes. It was the first start since the gelding had been purchased for $117,000 at the Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale a month earlier. Siem Riep led all the way until getting nailed at the wire by a neck.
Unfortunately, that was Siem Riep's last race for almost two years, as he suffered a soft-tissue injury preparing for the mile stakes at Kentucky Downs.
Now the Arkansas-based Brennan brought the horse back to Ellis Park, this time for the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Turf Sprint. He says the 7-year-old Siem Riep is completely sound — “He's had so many ultrasound tests that I could have bought the machine,” he quips — and the gelding doesn't even wear protective bandages while training.
Brennan got one prep into Siem Riep, a front-runner around two turns who closed to take second by a head in a Lone Star Park allowance race July 11. That marked the first time the son of Tapit had sprinted.
Siem Riep also was second in the Preview mile stakes in 2018, again leading until very late.
Asked if he thought he'd found a new home sprinting for Siem Riep, Brennan joked, “I don't know. I just hope we can put together more than two races.”
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