Earner, Chestertown lead 5 can't-miss weekday races
As stakes opportunities abound this summer with racetracks making up for lost time, a number of runners in the allowance ranks will position themselves for added-money events this week. Here’s a look at five races to watch through Friday with some bigger picture implications.
Thursday’s fifth race at Belmont Park (3:27 p.m. ET)
Kansas Kis and Spice Is Nice looked like two fillies bound for an on-schedule Kentucky Oaks. But having failed to fire in their previous starts, both have landed in this 1 1/16-mile allowance for non-winners of two. Raymond Handal-trained Kansas Kis was a nose away from winning Aqueduct’s March 7 Busher Invitational but more recently ran 12th of 14 in a deep edition of Oaklawn Park’s Fantasy Stakes (G3). Spice Is Nice, the $1.05 million first foal out of Dame Dorothy, rolled in her Jan. 12 debut before a runner-up Davona Dale (G2) finish. She was fifth last time in Swiss Skydiver’s front-running Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2).
Thursday’s seventh race at Belmont Park (4:32 p.m. ET)
Chestertown, the $2 million purchase for West Point Thoroughbreds and partners in 2019 as a 2-year-old, tried open allowance company with a pair of runner-up finishes over winter at Fair Grounds before running eighth in the Louisiana Derby (G2). The Steve Asmussen-bred son of Tapit gets the chance to recalibrate in New York-bred company, the ranks of which he registered his lone win in five starts back on Dec. 1 at Aqueduct. They’ll go 1 1/16 miles, and with Irad Ortiz Jr. in the irons Chestertown should get a fair shot at his second career score.
Friday’s third race at Churchill Downs (2:06 p.m. ET)
The 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Bulletin is still at it, set to make his second start for the Asmussen barn in this five-furlong jaunt over the lawn. The 4-year-old son of City Zip remains in the allowance ranks after running fifth in quite a loaded race off the bench back on May 29, when Extravagant Kid and Leinster ran 1-2 in a stakes-quality event. There’s talent somewhere for Bulletin, who also won the Hollywood Beach at age 2 and opened his sophomore season taking Keeneland’s Palisades Turf Sprint, then for Todd Pletcher. Bulletin is 0-for-5 since starting unbeaten.
Friday’s sixth race at Churchill Downs (3:42 p.m. ET)
Dunph was the subject of much conversation to cap the Oaklawn Park meet when, in the first start off the claim for the Robertino Diodoro barn, he upset an allowance race at 57.8-1 looking much the best. It equated to a 98 Beyer Speed Figure, the 4-year-old Temple City gelding’s best number by 12 points, with Diodoro saying “he’s just meant to be a good horse and getting back to where he was.” Detractors suggested something more nefarious. Here, Dunph is a main track-only entrant in a one-mile allowance with some storms possible based on the local forecast.
Friday’s eighth race at Churchill Downs (4:46 p.m. ET)
The winner of this 1 1/8-mile main track allowance for 3-year-olds will likely be bound for the extended Kentucky Derby trail. Of special interest in that regard is Earner, a $425,000 son or Carpe Diem trained by Asmussen for longtime clients Alex and JoAnn Lieblong. Earner ran second at a sprint distance on debut behind talented stablemate Echo Town, then stretched to break his maiden April 11 at Oaklawn Park, drawing off by 3 3/4 lengths despite a wide trip. Familiar names are numerous in this overflow field with Extraordinary and Sharecropper just two others to watch for a move forward at the right time.