Game On Dude Gallops at Churchill
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After dusk-to-dawn work in bone-chilling temperatures by Churchill Downs’ track maintenance team, there was a small window for training activity over the main track early Thanksgiving morning, and California-based visitor Game On Dude made the most of it.
The 8-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s 139th running of the $500,000-added Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (Grade
I) galloped one mile over a fast track, which opened for one hour of
training between 6-7 a.m. (all times EST) following the long night of
work by Churchill Downs’ Track Superintendent David Lehr’s experienced crew.
The Bob Baffert-trained
Game On Dude arrived at Churchill Downs early Wednesday afternoon, but
the opportunity to get a jog or gallop over the track on Thursday seemed
at least a 50-50 proposition
at that point. The weather forecast called for temperatures to dip into
the teens, and the track crew was most concerned with keeping the track
from freezing and endangering the 12-race Thanksgiving Day racing
program – a task made more delicate because of
the day’s early 11:30 a.m. post.
But Lehr was
comfortable with the one-hour training window, which was especially
valuable for horses entered to compete on Friday’s “Black Friday” card
topped by the Clark Handicap and Saturday’s closing
day “Stars of Tomorrow II” program devoted exclusively to 2-year-olds.
So Game On Dude got a feel for the track under regular exercise rider Dana Barnes, his first journey over the Churchill Downs oval since his runner-up finish to WinStar Farm’s Drosselmeyer
in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI). Baffert assistant Jim Barnes was, in the spirit of the day, thankful for the opportunity to get Game On Dude out of the barn.
“We’re happy as
can be,” Jim Barnes said. “It makes us feel much more comfortable
getting him out. We had our work day (on Sunday) and we had our walk
day. We did jog (on Tuesday), then we walked again because
we shipped. We’ll probably just stay in the shed tomorrow and do
something light.”
Game On Dude was
eager to check out his surroundings immediately following his arrival on
the grounds, and Barnes said Friday’s jog was a good way to keep him
from being a little too eager.
“He was just fresh
– he’s like a baby,” Barnes said. “He was just feeling way too good and
we just wanted to let him stretch his legs.”
The 1 1/8-mile Clark is expected to be the final race of a spectacular season for Game On Dude, but one that is tainted, at least at this point, by a disappointing ninth-place finish as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) on Nov. 2 at Santa Anita. The loss snapped a six-race win streak, with five of those wins coming in 2013 and three in Grade I competition: the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup and the Pacific Classic.
The 6-year-old Awesome Again gelding has been frisky and curious since his first minute at Churchill Downs. If there is any hangover from his successful year and the Breeders’ Cup run, it has not been evident to those at Churchill Downs who have seen him since his Wednesday arrival.
“He’s doing super-good,” Barnes said. “He’s very young-at-heart and we’re expecting
big things from him (Friday).”
Game On Dude has a
career record of 28-15-5-1 and earned $2,470,000 of his career winnings
of $5,602,158 in 2013. He will break from the rail post under Hall of
Fame jockey Mike Smith when he faces
eight rivals in Friday’s Clark.
Baffert won the 1998 Clark with Silver Charm, winner of the 1997 Kentucky Derby. Smith earned a Clark win in 1993 aboard the Peter Vestal-trained Mi Cielo.
OUR DOUBLE PLAY, BAUER BID FOR HOME RUN IN CLARK HANDICAP
He’s named for a defensive gem in baseball, but the frame of reference will change significantly should Rigney Racing’s Our Double Play
pull off a major upset of favorites Game On Dude and Will Take Charge in Friday’s $500,000-added Clark Handicap Presented by Norton Healthcare (GI) at Churchill Downs.
A Clark win by Our
Double Play would definitely put the improving colt on offense. It
would be nothing less than a home run, which is fitting since the best
horse in the young training career of trainer
Phil Bauer is a 3-year-old son of Grand Slam.
A win would be a huge step for both Our Double Play and his young trainer, a former assistant to trainer Kenny McPeek who went out on his own last spring with the support of Richard and Tammy
Rigney, the Louisville couple who entrusted the horses that they solely own in Bauer’s care.
Our Double Play
has won four of nine starts at three, including a victory in the Prairie
Mile at Prairie Meadows in June. But his most impressive win might
have come in a Halloween allowance race at Churchill
Downs in which he defeated Clark rival and 2012 Super Derby (GII) winner
Bourbon Courage. Our Double Play led all the way over sloppy
footing that day, took the best shot that Bourbon Courage could offer in
upper stretch and pulled clear under Francisco
Torres to win by 3 ¾ lengths.
After searching
for another allowance race for the colt, Bauer and the Rigneys decided
to take a big swing and drop Our Double Play into the entry box for the
Clark.
“We’re all systems go,” Bauer said. “He’s as ready as he’s gonna be. We’ll try him.”
Our Double Play’s
record heading into the Clark is 11-4-1-1-with earnings of $162,572. All
four wins have come this year and he enters Friday’s big league race in
the Clark with one more career win than
his trainer, who earned his third career victory last week with the
Rigneys’ Cookie.
One of Our Double
Play’s victories was a 4 ½-length romp in a seven-furlong allowance at
Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. With the exception of an
eighth-place finish in the $400,000 Researcher at
West Virginia’s Charles Town, he’s run well since and his ongoing
improvement has earned the colt a shot at the big boys in the Clark.
“The horse seemed
to wake up on Derby Day here,” Bauer said. “We always thought he had a
lot of talent and I worked with him even when we had him with Kenny. I
was thrilled when the Rigneys gave me an opportunity
and he was coming with us.
“If you put a line
through that Charles Town race, he’s just getting better and better.
That last race, hopefully, is a sign of what’s to come. With the way he
crossed the wire at 7 ½ furlongs in his last
race, we all thought that as he matures, he’s going to be able to go
longer. With horses it sometimes takes a while for them to catch-on
mentally, and he seems to be doing that.”
Bauer knows that Our Double Play, a 20-1 shot in Mike Battaglia’s
morning line odds for the Clark, will be one of the outsiders in the
Clark. But he also knows that when his colt breaks from post
eight he should have a clear path to use his early speed and get the
position he wants in the early stages of the race.
Then Bauer and the Rigneys will see what happens.
“With our post
position and how the race lines up, I see us second into the first turn,
right off the hip of Game On Dude,” Bauer said. “If we do outbreak him,
we’ll be able to cross over in front of him.
I definitely see us being involved in the early pace. The last thing I
want to do is get involved in a speed duel and use him up early, but
coming out of a one-turn race and the history of his past performances,
he’s going to show early foot. So, I’m not going
to take anything away from him.”
Regardless of the
ultimate Clark Handicap result for Our Double Play, the 28-year-old
Bauer has no problems finding reasons to smile on his first Thanksgiving
holiday on his own as a Thoroughbred trainer.
He has the support of enthusiastic and supportive owners in the Rigneys,
he has enjoyed on-track success with their horses in the early months
of his career and now will saddle a horse he trains in an important
Grade I race for older horses.
And then there are
family developments. Bauer missed being in the winner’s circle when Our
Double Play downed Bourbon Courage on Halloween because he was at
Louisville’s Norton Hospital, where his wife,
Ashley, gave birth that day to their first child. Young Philip Wyatt Bauer
is just about ready to celebrate the one-month anniversary of his birth
and his father said life with his son has been a wonder.
“I keep telling my
wife to pinch me because of the way everything has gone,’ Bauer said.
“We kind of got the picture developed with the Rigneys back in May, and
if you had told me that at the end of November
we’d be running in a Grade I, it would have been hard to believe it. I
couldn’t be happier where we’re at.”
The only thing
that might make Bauer and his connections happier would be to make
international racing headlines with an upset by Our Double Play in the
Clark. But despite his youth, Bauer has been around
horse racing enough to take race, dreams and home runs one step at a
time.
“There are no
expectations going into to it,” Bauer said. “He’s earned this, so we’re
going to let him try it. We won’t hang our heads if it ends in defeat.
We’ll move forward, regardless.”
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