Hernandez has multiple live mounts on Stephen Foster Night

Saturday night at Churchill Downs has potential to be a prosperous one for jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. who has live mounts in each of the five graded stakes: Eagle in the $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (Grade I), Ahh Chocolate in the $200,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap (GII), Thatcher Street in the $200,000 Wise Dan (GII), Auntie Joy in the $100,000 Regret (GIII) and Virtual Machine in the $100,000 Matt Winn (GIII). 

“We’re going into the weekend with some legitimate chances that if they show up they’ll run well,” Hernandez said. “They’ve all been training real well. Eagle is going into the Stephen Foster well and when you’re riding horses like that, you go in with a lot of confidence and you think that you’ll be on a lot of live horses. We’re hoping that they show up and that they’re the best on that day.”

Two of Hernandez’s mounts on Saturday evening, Eagle and Ahh Chocolate, have already provided Hernandez with success at the graded stakes level this year when the former won the April 16 Ben Ali (GII) at Keeneland and the latter triumphed on Preakness weekend in the May 20 Allaire DuPont Distaff (GIII) at Pimlico. Eagle could give Hernandez his first Grade I win since winning the 2013 Stephen Foster with Fort Larned, who he guided to victory in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) at Santa Anita.

“Being able to win a Grade I with a horse like Eagle would be huge because we’ve been around him for so long,” Hernandez said. “The thing about him now is that we’re noticing that he’s starting to focus a lot more and he’s kind of going from college ball to professional where he’s figuring it out so we think he’s coming into the race great. Of course we have to beat Effinex and Majestic Harbor which could be tough, but we’ve got to go in with a lot of confidence in our horse. Ahh Chocolate’s race in Maryland, the beauty about that is that she ran such a big race on Preakness weekend and the filly that she beat (Theogony) came back and ran big in her win at Belmont (Rags to Riches Invitational) so we’re going in thinking that we have some big chances.”

In the Regret, Hernandez will be aboard Auntie Joy, who finished a late-closing second behind Catch a Glimpse in the Edgewood on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard at odds of 31-1. Despite such high odds, Hernandez was confident she would run a big race.

“Me and (trainer) Brendan (Walsh) both thought that she would run that kind of race,” Hernandez said. “I haven’t been on her since but Brendan has been doing nothing but bragging about her. He came here and worked her on the grass the other day and he was really proud of her. She had some kind of infection at Gulfstream the first time he ran her this year so she didn’t run any good, but then she came back and won the 1x (at Gulfstream Park). Then at Keeneland she had an excuse; she was coming out of the one-hole that day, so on the day we were here and ran second to Catch a Glimpse, we were really, really confident in her.

“Going into the Edgewood and coming out of the one-hole at Keeneland, we kind of had to use that as a prep race going into the Edgewood which worked out great because I didn’t think she ran that bad of a race. For her to run fifth at Keeneland and then for her to come back here in the Edgewood she really showed how dominant she could be.”

The day after Hernandez guided Ahh Chocolate to a win at Pimlico, he was met with another stakes win in Churchill Downs’ Opening Verse Overnight Stakes aboard Thatcher Street, who boasts a 9-3-4-1 record over the Matt Winn Turf Course.