Gunpowder Farms' Breaking Lucky eyes third stakes win in Lukas Classic

Tom Keithley’s Gunpowder Farm LLC doesn’t often have three runners on the same day, but Saturday will be an exception as a trio of horses – Nawlins Kitty in a first-level allowance race, Barahona in the $100,000 Jefferson Cup and Breaking Lucky in the $175,000 Lukas Classic – are set for action at Churchill Downs in the white and maroon Gunpowder silks.

“It just kind of worked out that we have three horses that could run at Churchill on Saturday,” said Gunpowder Farm’s racing manager Josh Stevens. “It’s cool to have two or three running on the same day but they’re usually pretty spread out. We’ll sometimes have one in Kentucky and one in Ontario or New York, but we don’t usually have three in the same spot like we will on Saturday. It would be just a notch under our cap. It’s great to have some of your best horses all running at the same place on the same day.”

Trained by Reade Baker, Breaking Lucky looks to add a third stakes victory to his résumé, which already includes wins in his native Canada in last year’s Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie and Woodbine’s Seagram Cup (Grade III) on Aug. 1. His most recent effort was a fourth-place finish in the Sept. 3 Woodward (GI) at Saratoga where he was beaten only a neck behind eventual winner Shaman Ghost at odds of 48-1.

“We thought that he would run huge that day but to say that he would run fourth beaten only a neck would have been a bit much,” Stevens said. “We’ve known all along that he’s talented. It’s just taken a bit to figure out what to do with him. We made the rider change to a more aggressive jockey (Luis Contreras) and tweaked his training a bit. So we went ahead and made those changes and now we have ourselves a serious dirt horse. Breaking Lucky ran real well for us in the Woodward so we figured that the Lukas Classic would be a good opportunity for us showcase his talent at Churchill. This is our chance to replicate (the Woodward) and see what we really have and if he does well we’ll look at possibly targeting the (Grade I $500,000) Clark Handicap (Presented by Norton Healthcare on Nov. 25) in the fall.”

Coming fresh out of an eye-opening maiden victory over the Churchill grass on Sept. 16, Barahona will be stepping up in class in the Jefferson Cup for trainer William “Buff” Bradley when he takes on winners for the first time.

“‘Hona has a great pedigree, he’s out of an undefeated A.P. Indy mare (Vaulcluse),” Stevens said. “We sent him to New York where he broke his maiden up there but got disqualified. He ran against some horses that did big things; one horse (Life Imitates Art) was in there that ended up winning a Grade III. We tried him once on dirt and he ended up coming out of it with an injury so we gave him some time off. It takes a little bit of training to get him race ready. He’s a talented colt, but it’s just a matter of getting him ready and ‘Buff’ does a good job at that.”

Stevens is not concerned with spinning him back in two weeks for his stakes debut.

“I think we’ll be good,” Stevens said “We got him nice and fit and he’s a pretty heavy-bodied horse. (Jockey) Shaun (Bridgmohan) did a good job of gearing him down.”

Gunpowder Farms also owns Divisidero, the winner of this year’s Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (GI) who also is trained by Bradley and found success at Churchill Downs as a 3-year-old winning the American Turf (GII).

“They’re pretty different horses,” Stevens said. “Divisidero is all business. When he gets on the track in the morning he’s a no nonsense kind of guy. He was elite from Day One. ‘Hona is a bit of a prankster. He plays around a lot and he’ll buck at you. From Day One we knew Divisidero would be a race horse. ‘Hona is special and he knows it. He’s just got that cocky nature.”

Earlier on the Saturday program, Nawlins Kitty will return to Churchill Downs for the first time since breaking her maiden in her June 11 debut, and will be looking for her first victory since that race. Her last effort was a well-beaten 10th in a Sept. 3 allowance race at Kentucky Downs.

“Nawlins Kitty came out of her race at Kentucky Downs well,” Stevens said. “We’re hoping for a big race out of her on Saturday since she obviously likes the surface. If all goes well we’d like to run her back in the (Grade III, $150,000) Valley View (on Oct. 21) at Keeneland.”

Gunpowder Farms is currently in a four-way tie for leading owner at Churchill Downs for the September Meet with Ken and Sarah Ramsey, West Point Thoroughbreds and Clifford J. Grum, all of which have two wins apiece.

“It would be great to be able to come out of Saturday as the leading owner,” Stevens said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have some good trainers that have been helping us out along the way, pointing us in the right direction and being honest with us in letting us know if we’re being a little too ambitious.”

Source: Churchill Downs