2-year old colts Gemacho and Parlor win at Ellis Park

Victories by 2-year-old colts Gemacho and Parlor in maiden races and the 3-year-old filly Covey Trace in a second-level allowance highlighted Sunday’s action at Ellis Park.

The performances were all excellent in their own right. But Parlor was the most visually impressive in his debut, caught flat-footed at the start and spotting most of the field several lengths. But the son of the Australian superstar Lonhro swept into contention on the second turn and threaded his way through the field under Declan Cannon to win the sixth race by 2 1/2 lengths over Artful Union and jockey Brian Hernandez, who had set a leisurely pace.

“He broke pretty slow,” Cannon said. “He heard the gate and kind of went like, ‘ooh.’ Then I had to nurse him along. Down the backside, I had so much horse. I just wanted to teach him, because they have to learn. He learned a lot today, because he had to split horses, I had to take him back in mid-pack and teach him. But the way he finished up, my gosh, exciting.”

Talk about a Parlor trick! The winner had wrested the lead with an eighth-mile to go, covering the mile over firm turf in 1:38.80, the last eighth-mile in 11.54 seconds. He paid $14.20 as the fifth choice in the field of nine.

“After he broke slow, I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to teach him to run home, run the best we can,’” Cannon said. “Halfway down the back, I took a hold of those reins and said, ‘Oh, I’ve got horse here.’ That was fun.”

“It wasn’t ideal, that’s for sure,” said Gerry Carwood, who has a training operation for young horses half the year in Aiken, S.C., and also helps out Eddie Kenneally, Covey Trace’s trainer. “But we knew the horse had talent. I knew when Declan asked him, he’d respond. I was getting a little worried coming into the turn that he wouldn’t find room, but he did.”

Parlor likely will point toward an allowance race at Kentucky Downs, Carwood said.

Gemacho big dog after ‘walking the dog’ under Court

Jockey Jon Court got away with crawling fractions, and favored Gemacho had plenty in the tank to hold off the Kellyn Gorder-trained first-time starter All Right and win by three-quarters of a length.

Trainer Vickie Foley said she had almost hoped that an early afternoon shower would take the races of the turf. But now Gemacho, a $70,000 OBS 2-year-old purchase, showed that he can handle turf or dirt. He finished second in his first start in an off-turf maiden race won by the well-regarded Honor Thy Father.

“I wanted the distance, definitely,” Foley said of the mile races on turf. “Court walked the dog, as they say. But we thought a lot of this horse when we bought him. He had a nice 48-flat workout last week (at Churchill Downs) and was coming into the race well. I was actually hoping for some more rain, because we knew he could run on the dirt. But it’s a good time to find out if he can handle the turf, too.”

Gemacho got away with a first quarter-mile in 26 seconds, gradually picking up the pace to 25.20 and 24.91, cruising the last eighth-mile in 11.96 to finish the mile in 1:39.96.

“I didn’t expect that we’d inherit the lead that easy,” Court said after the first of his two wins Sunday. “First time on turf, he handled it really well. Relaxed up there. We were setting a comfortable pace and had enough left to punch down the lane. Second time out, he’s still a little green but he’s putting it together. The horse wants to do right, and Vickie is doing an excellent job with him.”

Foley said they’d now look at running in either an allowance race or stakes at Kentucky Downs. “It’s a tough place to pass up, with the purses,” she said of the Franklin, Ky., track offering some of the richest races in America.

Gemacho is owned by the Vickie Foley et al syndicate, with “et al” seemingly referring to all of Louisville, as her well-populated winner’s circles attest.

Covey Trace proving bargain purchase

Covey Trace, with Brian Hernandez Jr. up, battled early on with favored Can’t Be Dazzled, dispatching her older rival in the stretch for a 5 1/4-length victory in the $40,000 allowance race. Northern Connect, owned by Ellis Park majority owner Ron Geary, closed to finish another half-length back in third in the field of six fillies and mares.

Going through resolute and challenged fractions early, Covey Trace had a clear lead after powering six furlongs in 1:09.16. She finished the last sixteenth-mile in 6.24 seconds to conclude in 1:15.40 over a track that seemed a bit dulled after earlier rain.

Covey Trace was eighth in her prior start, at turf stakes at Indiana Grand, but lost by only five lengths after banging her head so hard on the gate at the start that she came back bloody.

“She ran well,” Hernandez said. “For a 3-year-old filly to beat older mares like that, and in the fashion she did it, that was impressive. Billy thought she’d run that big of a race, and she backed him up.”

After trainer and co-owner Bill Denzik Jr. paid $10,000 for Covey Trace at Keeneland’s 2014 September yearling sale, he found himself asking, “What did I do?”

After all, nobody except Doug O’Neill, who trained Stevie Wonderboy, ever seemed to win with that stallion’s progeny.

“I paid $10,000 for her, which was a lot,” said Denzik, who is stabled at the Highpointe training center in Oldham County. “Because the mother is unraced and had like four foals and no runners. I brought her back and thought, ‘What did I do? Buy a $10,000 Stevie Wonderboy.’ Everybody was giving me grief about it, but that’s quit as she keeps running.”

Covey Trace now is 3-1-3 in 10 starts, earning $106,534 for Denzik and Louisville businessman Brook T. Smith, the friends graduating together from Oldham County High School. If you get past her parents — and, of course, Stevie Wonderboy was a 2-year-old champion — the filly’s female family includes stakes-winners Indian Way, Yankee Master and Divine Beauty, as well as breeder Brereton Jones’ outstanding Grade 1-winning filly By Land By Sea, whose 10 wins included two stakes at Ellis Park.

Denzik said he actually bought Covey Trace because his father had bred some of her female family. “It’s a cool, old family,” he said.

The performance could earn Covey Trace at shot at the Grade 3 Charles Town Oaks in West Virginia.

“I’d hoped she’d run good here,” Denzik said. “There’s no place to go for 3-year-old fillies. There’s a Grade 3, seven-eighths at Charles Town for straight 3-year-old fillies. I know it will be tough, but the big trainers dodge that a little bit. She might go there and love it, love the turns. She runs really good on turns. She’s a nice filly, though.”

Source: Ellis Park