A pair of $150,000 Open Turf Sprint Stakes with respective 12- and 10-horse fields will highlight Colonial Downs' second week of racing on the Saturday, July 22 card. The Andy Guest Stakes will feature fillies and mares 3-years-old and up while the Van Clief will showcase older males. Each will be contested at 5½furlongs and will be run consecutively as races five and six, kicking off the first two legs of the fifty-cent Late Pick-5 which has a low 12% takeout rate.
M and W Stables' Train to Artemus is early 2-1 favorite in the Andy Guest Stakes for trainer Kelly Breen. The 5-year-old Tapizar mare is 7-for-10 on turf and has won three of the last five stakes she has competed in. She prevailed most recently in the Goodwood at Monmouth and Pimlico's The Very One, and back on February 18, she captured the Lightning City Stakes at Tampa. Emisael Jaramillo will ride.
DARRS Inc.'s Rambert will look to take a step forward Saturday after two second-place stakes finishes at the New Kent racetrack, the 2022 Camptown and 2021 Keswick Stakes. The 4-year-old Declaration of War filly broke her maiden at Colonial last summer and is looking to extend a current two-race win streak from turf scores at Meadowlands and Delaware Park. Trained by Michael Stidham and ridden by Mychel Sanchez, the filly is owned by Colonial's all-time leader in that category, David Ross.
Larry Johnson's Can't Buy Love will get attention courtesy of three recent stakes placed outings. The 5-year-old Twirling Candy mare was runner-up to Train to Artemus in the Goodwood and had respectable thirds in the Floral Park at Aqueduct and Sensible Lady Turf Dash Stakes at Pimlico. With $292,311 in earnings, the Michael Trombetta trainee will be ridden by Horacio Karamanos.
One race later, Elizabeth Merryman's consistent 4-year-old gelding Witty is the 5-2 morning line favorite in the Van Clief. The son of Great Notion has five wins and five runner-up finishes from 14 career starts, good for earnings of $357,460. The McLane Hendriks trainee was second July 1 in the Laurel Dash and in his other most recent stakes outing, took a respectable fifth in the Page McKenney Handicap at Parx. Carol Cedeno will ride Witty from post three.
George Sharp's Front Run the Fed, winner of the 2022 Van Clief, returns to defend his title and faces a deep field. The 7-year-old Fed Biz horse won by a head last year and since then, has competed in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile and in the Jaipur Stakes at Belmont. The Caio Caramori trainee, with a bankroll of $639,182, also took a respectable fourth last fall in the Grade 2 Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs. David Cabrera will ride Saturday.
A trio of competitors, each with bankrolls of over $650,000, will try to stop the defending champ. Calumet Farm's Gear Jockey, second early pick at 4-1, is just $3,029 shy of breaking the $1 million mark in earnings. The 6-year-old Twirling Candy horse has Grade 1 experience with a sixth in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint and a tenth in last year's Jaipur. The Rusty Arnold trainee, who has not competed since November, will have Feargal Lynch in the irons.
Golden Kernel Racing Stable's Yes I Am Free has 12 career victories including back-to-back winning efforts in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. Trainer Laura Cazares's 7-year-old Uncaptured gelding has been rolling nicely in 2023, finishing either first or second in all five outings. Two of those were close seconds — by a neck in the Mighty Beau Stakes at Ellis Park and by a half-length in the Silks Run Stakes at Gulfstream. Emisael Jaramillo has the mount.
William Branch's 7-year-old Artie Schiller gelding Carotari brings a wealth of turf experience and success into the Van Clief. Trainer Brian Lynch's charge has 16 in-the-money scores from 22 grass starts and earnings of $524,303. Carotari has faced Yes I Am Free twice recently, in the Silks Run and the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, and finished one spot behind Cazares's gelding each time. Colby Hernandez will ride from post 9.
About Colonial Downs
Colonial Downs Racetrack, in New Kent, Virginia, hosts live thoroughbred racing on two nationally renowned surfaces – the Secretariat Turf Course, the widest turf course in North America at 180 feet wide and on a 1 1/4-mile dirt track, second in length to only the world-famous Belmont Park.
The Colonial Downs Group, which is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN), also operates Rosie's Gaming Emporiums® in Richmond, Hampton, New Kent, Vinton, and Dumfries which offer innovative historic horseracing (HHR) gaming technology and full card simulcasting as well as Rosie's Game Room in Collinsville, which features a limited selection of some of their best HHR titles plus full card simulcasting. The 2023 live racing season, which consists of 27 days from July 13 through September 9, is highlighted by the Grade 1 Arlington Million, Grade 1 Beverly D. and Grade 2 Secretariat Stakes on August 12 and the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby on September 9. The Beverly D. is a Breeders' Cup Challenge “Win & You're In” race.
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