'Future is so bright' for Stephen Foster favorite Backyard Heaven
Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Backyard Heaven, last out a winner of the Alysheba (GII), was made the 6-5 morning line favorite when facing eight rivals in Saturday night’s 37th running of the Grade I, $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap -- the centerpiece of a prime-time program at Churchill Downs.
“The future is so bright for this horse,” Ken Ramsey said. “We’re awfully excited to see this horse on such a big stage Saturday night at Churchill Downs. This horse had a few minor issues but we trusted in our trainer Chad Brown that this horse would pay us off in the future. He’s certainly heading in the right direction.”
Backyard Heaven, a $160,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase back in 2015, will make only his fifth career start in the Stephen Foster following two minor setbacks as a 3-year-old.
“The $160,000 price tag is really the most I pay for yearlings, so you can see how much we thought of him when he was young,” Ramsey said. “We decided to send him to Chad, who I believe is one of the top trainers in the country. He called me after he got him and said, ‘Ken, I think we have a horse that could possibly run in the Kentucky Derby.’
"That immediately got me excited, but he had to miss some time so we wouldn’t be ready for the Derby. Fine, we can point to the Belmont Stakes. Well, of all things, the horse got a sinus infection. So, we had to treat him for that and he wouldn’t be ready for the Belmont.
“After some time away, he was training for a maiden race at Saratoga and, once again, got another sinus infection. Chad told me we should just take it easy and the horse will reward us in the future. I was ready to take him down to Gulfstream Park with us this winter but we ended up keeping him at Aqueduct in New York where he was training phenomenal. He was heavily bet in both his maiden win (Dec. 10) and allowance win in March prior to the Alysheba. I think we made the right call.”
Backyard Heaven battled on the lead for most of the running of the Alysheba to prevail by 4 ½ lengths over fellow Foster competitor Hawaakom.
“If this horse continues to climb the mountain, we hope to follow the same path Gun Runner did in 2017,” Ramsey said. “We’ll run Saturday in the Stephen Foster then point to the $1.2 million Whitney (GI) at Saratoga on August 4. If all goes well, we could possibly look at the $750,000 Woodward (GI) on Labor Day Weekend (Sept. 1) and round out the year in the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) right here at Churchill on Nov. 3. Then there’s this little race called the Pegasus World Cup (GI) for $16 million in January that we’ll want to run in.
“I honestly believe he’s the second-most valuable horse I own behind Kitten’s Joy.”
Backyard Heaven will break from post 6 Saturday under Irad Ortiz Jr.
The 1 1/8-mile Stephen Foster Handicap is the richest of five graded stakes races on Saturday’s special 11-race night racing card that begins at 6 p.m. (all times Eastern). Total purses on the evening are more than $1.4 million, which makes it the most lucrative racing day for horsemen at Churchill Downs outside of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks programs.