Borel envisions 'big future' for his Ellis Park Juvenile horse

Letmeno earned the right to run in Sunday’s $100,000 TwinSpires Ellis Park Juvenile by winning on debut at Ellis on July 13. After breaking last in the field of 11, the Twirling Candy colt made a huge move to get into contention while going between horses and went on to a one-length victory at 20-1 odds. He’s ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel, whose first of three Kentucky Derby victories came in 2007 on Street Sense, a colt with whom Wilkes was very involved with as a training associate of trainer Carl Nafzger.

“He’s a slow learner,” Wilkes said of Letmeno while speaking from Saratoga. “But when I worked him last time before he ran, he worked very, very well — like the lightbulb came on. I wasn’t worried about the slow start (in his race), thought he’d get a good education.

"But then the move he started at the half-mile, I said, ‘Wow, look at this horse. If he keeps going from here, we might have a really nice horse.’ And he kept going. To make that move like that and run that well, that was really good.”

The Juvenile drew a field of seven colts and geldings Thursday, including Rowdy Yates, a very good second in Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Bashford Manor in his second start; and allowance winners Axiomo and Alec and Arthur.

Every other horse in the field has at least two starts with the exception of Night Time, who won his debut at Ellis Park by 4 1/2 lengths for trainer Dale Romans, winner of the 2017 Juvenile with Dak Attack.

Letmeno won his bow at six furlongs, with the distance of the Juvenile and Debutante seven-eighths of a mile.

“He really put it together in the race,” Borel said. “It was impressive, kind of unexpected maybe. But Ian said, ‘Ride him the right way, do everything the right way. I really didn’t have to get into him. He did that pretty easily. What I liked is that he went between horses, did it like an old horse. And that’s what Ian wanted: just take him back and school him. If we could win, good, but get a good race in him. And he won.

"[The] distance doesn’t matter," Borel continued. "I think it’s just going to help. Seven-eighths will just help him a lot. He’s got a big future ahead of him.”

Letmeno, a $70,000 Keeneland yearling purchase for Six Column Stables and Randy Bloch, was only the fourth 2-year-old first-time starter trained by Wilkes to win out of 64 horses in 2018-2019, according to Bris statistics. But, like his mentor Nafzger, Wilkes is always looking down the road and at the development of a horse.

“They’re fit enough to run,” Wilkes said. “But have I tightened the screws down enough to win? If they’re good enough, they’ll win. They’ll win on ability. But then I know, when I come back next time, I think I’ve got improvement in the horse. Because they have to improve that next start. That’s what I’m looking at, for the horse to get better the next time I run him.

“This horse has done nothing wrong, except it just took a little while for the lightbulb to come on. That was all. To be a good horse, you have to have a good turn of foot on the dirt. If you can accelerate on the dirt, you’re a good horse. He showed the improvement you want to see in his works from race one to race two. Now we’ve got to do it in the afternoon. Any time you go from a maiden to an allowance race or a stakes, it’s not easy. They have to step up. The water gets deeper, the competition gets tougher. Experience does help these young horses.”

The TwinSpires Ellis Park Debutante attracted eleven 2-year-old fillies, including $1,000 yearling purchase Lady Glamour, the 7 1/2-length winner over a good field in Ellis’ allowance prep for Lexington-based trainer Larry Demeritte and owner Inga Demeritte, his wife. Asmussen sends out the duo of Ellis maiden winners Green Destiny and Milli Starr.

Last year’s Debutante was won by 2019 Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress in a 13 1/2-length romp. Trainer Tom Amoss can only hope his Debutante entrant this year, His Glory, can come anywhere close to Serengeti Empress. So far, the two have followed a similar path: winning their debuts impressively at Indiana Grand then shipping to Saratoga and running a disappointing race in the Grade 3 Schuylerville (though Serengeti Empress was a respectable fourth with the rider dropping his whip, His Glory was a well-beaten seventh).