Plenty of Bourbon to go around at Keeneland

Bourbon Lane Stable and trainer Kellyn Gorder look to make the most of opening weekend at Keeneland with the unveiling of a pair of stable stars on the first two days of the fall meet.

First on Friday, Gorder looks to reinvigorate the racing career of the 2012 Super Derby winner Bourbon Courage in a Friday allowance race. “We are going to try something different with him and cut back to 6½ furlongs,” said Gorder of the sixth race carded on opening day.

The five-year-old son of Lion Heart demonstrated his readiness for his first race back since a disappointing sixth place finish in the Pimlico Special back in May, with a series of strong workouts, including most recently, a bullet three furlong move in :35.20 over the new Keeneland main track on Monday.

That poor effort at Pimlico was one of the few times in his career when the winner of more than $900,000 did not fire, and it came at the extended distance of 1 3/16 miles.

I see the cutback in distance as a positive move for the talented horse who has spent much of the last two years knocking on the door of something good, after his Super Derby win. Given one-turn, and some pace to run at, I am looking for a return to his winning ways for Bourbon Courage.

Then on Saturday, Hashtag Bourbon will look to pick up where his bourbon brother from a different mother left off, while going after a big prize in the Grade 1, $500,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.

The impressive winner of the Mountaineer Juvenile just happens to be the very first horse I tabbed as a potential 2015 Kentucky Derby winner. A kiss of death, maybe, but this is one colt in which I see a big future.

Only one-of-three lifetime, Hashtag Bourbon has run well in both of his losses at Churchill Downs despite plenty of trouble. Most recently, he came home third in the 1 1/16th mile Iroquois Stakes on September 6.

“He broke well that day, which he had not done in his first two starts,” said Gorder. “He had the one hole and he was a little keen and he wound up with horses all around him and (jockey) Brian (Hernandez Jr.) had nowhere to go. It wasn’t Brian’s fault. He couldn’t take back and get out. He was finally able to push out at the eighth pole, but he had too much to do.”

As you can probably tell, I concur with his trainer’s assessment of the tough trip at Churchill. If he had clear running that day, I believe the bay colt would be coming into Saturday’s test on a two stakes race winning streak.

Just like Bourbon Courage, the juvenile son of Super Saver turned in a bullet work on Monday at Keeneland with a sharp half-mile in :47.20.

“He worked great yesterday, and I couldn’t keep his feet on the ground this morning,” said Gorder.

Sip it, drink it, enjoy it … Bourbon should be a winning libation as the Keeneland Fall Meet gets underway.