Ellis Park Turf attracts competitive field of nine

Ellis Park stages its first stakes of the summer in Saturday’s $50,000 Ellis Park Turf, a 1 1/16-mile grass affair that attracted a competitive field of nine fillies and mares.

Trainer Brad Cox, whose stable ranks No. 12 in purse earnings this year at $3.28 million, has the 3-1 favorite in Sweet Acclaim and another live contender in 6-1 King’s Ghost. The 5-year-old Sweet Acclaim, who was off 1 1/2 years before joining Cox’s barn, has allowance victories at the Fair Grounds and Churchill Downs and a second by a head in Churchill Downs’ Grade III Mint Julep in her three 2016 starts.

King’s Ghost also won allowance races in New Orleans and Louisville in her last two starts, with a string of good workouts in the four months in between.

“They’re both doing very well,” Cox said from the Caribbean, where he is vacationing with his family. “Sweet Acclaim ran a great race in the Mint Julep, lost some ground around both turns. So we’re excited about her tomorrow — just trying to get a stakes win under our belts. She’s been on the board in some graded stakes in the past. So we’re trying to make her a stakes-winner and cross that off the list. Hopefully tomorrow will be the day.

“I’m also excited about King’s Ghost. To run third in that race would actually be a victory. Both mares are in there with live shots. I think they’ll both show up and make a good account of themselves.”

The EP Turf also attracted Personal Diary, who won the Grade I Del Mar Oaks in 2014. No horse in the field has faced more top competition.

Trained by Victoria Oliver for her father, G. Watts Humphrey, and St. George Farm, Personal Diary was a late-running fifth in the Mint Julep. The 5-year-old mare is getting blinkers for the first time in her 23rd start.

“She’s training great,” Oliver said from Lexington. “We added blinkers to try to get her a little more into the race. She kept herself a little too far out of it in her last couple of races, and it’s left her so much to do at the end. I don’t think she’ll be on the lead or anything, but hopefully at least it will keep her in the hunt. Hopefully with the blinkers she doesn’t get herself 15 lengths out of it, maybe like six.

“I had bigger plans for her after she won the Grade I. She hasn’t panned out like I thought. But if we can get her to win this, we can move forward. Our ultimate goal is to go back to Del Mar for the Mabee, because she loves that race course.”

Personal Diary finished fifth in last year’s Grade II John C. Mabee, but lost by a total of only three-quarters of a length. “She had a terrible trip, probably should have won,” Oliver said. “She’s been relatively unlucky, but she does it to herself when she comes from so far out of it. Horses get in her way, and she gets stopped.”

Impeached, trained by Jimmy Corrigan, is a fairly unusual Washington-bred to race in Kentucky. She’s won seven races, feasting on starter-allowance races, but won a third-level allowance at Churchill Downs and last year was second in the EP Turf, which was taken off the turf and run at a mile.

The David Vance-trained Kiss Moon is a six-time winner and $535,469 earner for Carl Pollard, the former Churchill Downs board chairman. But she’s struggled since winning the Mint Julep and the $300,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf last year. Still she has a license to move up in her third start of the year, which includes a throw-out race with her first start on dirt in years and then tiring after setting the pace in the Mint Julep.

Ellis Park Smackdown: ’Capping Contest for a Cause

Follow along Saturday as six all-star handicappers face off in trying to pick the most winners in the (formerly) Independence Day Smackdown, a charity competition sponsored by Coady Photography.

Ellis Park president Ron Geary, paddock-analyst Megan Devine, noted handicapper Joe Kristufek (who makes Ellis picks for Brisnet), track announcer Jimmy McNerney, Horse Racing Radio Network’s Jude Feld and Kentucky Downs’ C.J. Johnsen will make selections for a $2 win and place bet on one horse in each race on Saturday’s card. Their selections will be posted early Saturday morning at facebook.com/CoadyPhotography and @CoadyPhoto on Twitter, with standings updated throughout the day. Coady Photography, America’s leading track photographer whose 29 client tracks include Ellis Park, will donate $500 to a charity selected by the handicapper with the biggest mythical bankroll at the end of the day.

The charities potentially benefitting are: Aubrey Rose Foundation (McNerney), Ellis Park chapter of Kentucky Race Track Chaplaincy (Geary), Kosair Children’s Hospital (Kristufek), Old Friends (Devine), Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (Johnsen), and Race for Education (Feld).

Groupie Doll watch: Roxelana winner Athena under consideration

Trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi is considering the Aug. 6 Groupie Doll for both Athena and Academic Break. Athena won Churchill Downs’ six-furlong Roxelana Stakes over I’m A Looker in her last start, while Academic Break was a fast-closing fourth Friday in a second-level allowance race at Churchill Downs.

Athena, a daughter of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, is 5 for 13 lifetime, including winning a $100,000 stakes at Laurel for one of her three victories at the Groupie Doll’s mile distance. Winning a graded stakes would be huge for adding to Athena’s residual value as a broodmare.

“She’s got her certain style; she loves sitting like third, just off the pace and having something to run at,” said Pitts-Blasi, who gets on Athena in morning training. “She’s one of those mares where I think the older she gets, the better she’ll get. She’s one of those fillies who know when they win. It picks her head up, her whole demeanor. She gets real proud of herself.”

Of being Athena’s exercise rider, the Churchill-based Pitts-Blasi said, “I call her my spoiled little heifer. But she’s one of those ones who tell me what to do. Less is more with her. She likes ponying and loves her jogging. She likes to gallop, too, but she’s one of those you just keep happy, likes to do her own thing. She’s neat to gallop, has a great demeanor and just lovely to train.”

Coming up: July 17 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Day

Ellis Park is staging its first Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Day on July 17 to promote the industry-wide venture that provides funding for rehabilitation and retraining of retired racehorses to make sure they have good homes and often second careers after the racetrack.

The TAA accredits racehorse retirement, retraining and adoption organizations - and then provides grants to those programs. In its fourth year of existence, the TAA has contributed over $5.7 million to 56 accredited organizations. The brainchild of Louisville horse owner Jack Wolf, founder of Starlight Racing, TAA gets funding from owners, breeders, race tracks, sales companies, stallion farms and other industry professionals. Horse owners at Ellis Park contribute $1 for every race starter, with the track matching every dollar.

Note: A full release on TAA Day at Ellis will be out early next week.

Source: Ellis Park (Jennie Rees)