Colebrook touts Breeders' Cup pair after 'pretty special' upset
Trainer Ben Colebrook has been close to notching his first Grade 1 victory a handful of times, and he finally got it Saturday with Knicks Go, a 70-1 upset winner of the Grade 1, $500,000 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity.
“We’ve been knocking on the door of a Grade 1 with Limousine Liberal and Mr. Crow – he was second in a Grade 1 (the Vosburgh Stakes) this year,” Colebrook said. “We’ve been competitive in Grade 1s, just haven’t been able to break through. I always thought ‘Limo’ would be the one to do it, but this horse beat him to the punch. Hopefully Limo can get his Breeders’ Cup day.”
“He’s won his Grade 1 so I imagine he’ll be standing at stud somewhere when he’s done racing,” Colebrook said. The trainer added the Breeders’ Cup is a go as long as Knicks Go stays healthy.
The Paynter colt was purchased for $87,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The KRA tried to turn Knicks Go around at the OBS April Sale but ended up buying him back. The KRA then sent the Maryland-bred to Colebrook.
Knicks Go’s debut was impressive. He went five furlongs July 4 at Ellis Park and won by 3 ½ lengths. The next two races did not go as well. He turned around to run fifth in Saratoga’s Sanford (G3) less than three weeks later and ran third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity over the synthetic surface.
The last two races didn’t really go to plan,” Colebrook said. “Probably ran him back too quick off his maiden race at Saratoga, then you could see five jumps out of the gate on the polytrack that he wasn’t having any part of it. Didn’t have much of a stride on him.”
Jockey Albin Jimenez picked up the mount for the first time in the Breeders’ Futurity. Jimenez went straight to the lead for Knicks Go’s first two-turn race and didn’t have a worry around the second turn. The pair drew off to win by 5 ½ lengths and completed the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.23. It was also the first Grade 1 win for Jimenez.
“I thought he was going to be a longshot,” Colebrook said of Knicks Go’s odds after the race. “I didn’t think he’d be that big of a longshot. I thought 30-1 or something like that probably would be a fair price on him. Like I said, he didn’t get much respect.”
Colebrook, a former assistant to Christophe Clement who worked with 2014 Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist as a 2-year-old, took out his trainer’s license in 2012 and is based out of Keeneland. The trainer choked up a little bit after the Breeders’ Futurity when asked about winning his first Grade 1 at his home track.
“That’s pretty special. Just didn’t really expect it today,” Colebrook said. “I thought the horse would run good, but he exceeded all our expectations for sure.”
Horse racing and riding were always part of Colebrook’s life, with his father John Colebrook managing farms and training racehorses in Central Kentucky. Colebrook remembers breaking yearlings around the age of 11 or 12 and said he began galloping racehorses as soon as he could get his track license. Although he took time to play other sports in high school, he continued to ride and carried that through his time at the University of Kentucky.
“I decided to make a profession out of it unfortunately,” Colebrook, now 40, joked Sunday morning. “But days like yesterday make it seem like the right decision, but it’s not an easy game.”
The Breeders’ Futurity was uplifting after Limousine Liberal couldn’t find running room in Friday’s Phoenix Stakes (G2), finishing third behind Promises Fulfilled and Whitmore.
“(Jockey) Jose (Ortiz) felt bad about the ride,” Colebrook said. “Just one of those things he guessed wrong and when he committed to being down on the inside then he couldn’t get the room that he needed because the other jocks just kept him in there.”
“I think you just got to move on and I think the Breeders’ Cup sets up well for him at a track he’s had a lot of success over. I still think he likes Keeneland just as well, but it never works out for him here. We’ll go where he’s won his last five stakes at Churchill and we’ll go into the race with a lot of confidence.”
Limousine Liberal, a 6-year-old gelding, is six-for-eight over the Churchill Downs main track. He has also won the Churchill Downs Stakes (G2) on Kentucky Derby day two years in a row. His first victory outside Kentucky came this summer in the Belmont Sprint Championship (G2). He has been Grade 1-placed four times and also ran fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
The Sprint and Dirt Mile (G1) are both possibilities for Katherine Ball’s Limousine Liberal. Connections will see if Mind Your Biscuits chooses the Classic (G1), Dirt Mile or Sprint first, but are currently leaning more toward the Sprint. Roy H will also be back to defend his Sprint title after winning the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G1) Saturday and Promises Fulfilled will head to either the Sprint or Dirt Mile.
“It’s a funny year this year because it seems like the best sprinters are probably more like seven-furlong horses,” Colebrook said. “Limo’s best is probably seven. As he’s gotten older, he seems to want to come from out of it a little bit more, but there’s probably going to be enough speed in the Sprint that a come-from-behind horse might not be the worst thing in the world. And the long stretch at Churchill certainly helps him. It just seems like he keeps coming at horses. He’s relentless, he never gives up.”
As for Knicks Go, Colebrook accredited Jimenez’s confident ride aboard the longshot and the colt’s high cruising speed to keep him out of traffic. The race was a full 14-horse field until the favorite, Hopeful (G1) winner Mind Control, scratched due to fever.
“Down the backside I knew we were in pretty good shape when his ears were kind of flickering,” Colebrook said of watching Knicks Go in the Breeders’ Futurity Saturday. “I just thought it was going to take a big time closer to catch him and nobody ever came.”