Carve Favored in Homecoming Classic

 

The 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds and up over the main track had a flashy debut in 2013 when Janis Whitham’s reigning Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade I) and Stephen Foster Handicap (GI) winner Fort Larned scored an easy win in its inaugural running.  This year’s race is one of two major stakes events set for the final Saturday of the track’s second September Meet, which concludes its 12-date run on Sunday (Sept. 28).

 

The Homecoming Classic is scheduled as the ninth of 11 races on Saturday, which has a first race post time of 12:45 p.m. (all times EDT). The scheduled post time for the Homecoming Classic is 4:49 p.m., while the accompanying 38^th running of the $100,000-added Jefferson Cup (GIII) for 3-year-olds on turf is set as the 10^th race at 5:20 p.m.

 

Carve, a 4-year-old gelded son of First Samurai trained by Brad Cox, will attempt to add a win in the Homecoming Classic to a 2014 record of 4-1-1 in seven races with earnings of $458,860. Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia has installed Carve as the narrow 9-5 favorite in his morning line odds for the well-matched Homecoming Classic field.

 

Cox’s rising star comes into the race off a strong runner-up finish to Bradester in Churchill Downs’ $107,300 Ack Ack Handicap (GIII) on Sept. 6. That loss snapped a three-race win streak that began at the Louisville track in a June 14 allowance race and included stakes wins in the $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap (GIII) at Iowa’s Prairie Meadows and the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes at Mountaineer. Carve’s career record has improved to 6-2-4 in 16 races with earnings of $708,391.

 

Despite his strong outing against the impressive Bradester in the Ack Ack over Churchill Downs’ one-turn mile course, Cox believes Carve prefers a two-turn distance like the Homecoming Classic’s 1 1/8 miles.

 

“Two turns will help him,” Cox said. “I think going two turns is a little bit better than one for him. He won here in the spring in a one-turn mile in an allowance, but all his other wins have been around two turns.”

 

 

Departing enters the Homecoming Classic off a disappointing eighth-place run behind Moreno in the $1.5 million Whitney (GI) at Saratoga, but the 4-year-old gelding by the hot sire War Front has trained well for trainer Al Stall Jr. at Churchill Downs since that outing. The only millionaire in the Homecoming Classic field, Departing was a four-time stakes winner as a 3-year-old in 2013 before he was sent to Claiborne Farm for an extended rest following a fourth-place finish as the odds-on favorite in Remington Park’s  Oklahoma Derby (GIII). He returned to racing at Churchill Downs with a one-mile allowance win during Kentucky Derby Week, and followed that effort with a third-place run behind Moonshine Mullin and reigning 3-year-old champion Will Take Charge in the Stephen Foster Handicap in mid-June.

 

Departing enters the Homecoming Classic with a 7-0-2 record in 12 career races and total earnings of $1,521,340. Regular jockey Robby Albarado will ride and break from post four on Saturday.