Ky. Downs stakes roundup: Cogburn dominates Turf Sprint

Cogburn is on his way to Del Mar as the likely favorite for the Nov. 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint after earning an invitation with his dominating victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $1,797,200 Turf Sprint covering six furlongs at Kentucky Downs.

The even-money favorite under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Cogburn broke sharply from post position 4 and never looked back. After shooting to the front he proceeded to take the field through opening fractions of 21.82 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 44.14 seconds for the half-mile.

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After facing minimal pressure early, Cogburn began distancing himself from his rivals and drew off to win by 3 1/4 lengths over Khaadem, who had won a stakes at Royal Ascot in June before two disappointing races in England and France.

Long shot Axthelm prevailed by a nose in the photo for third over Nobals.

The winning time was 1:07.68 for six furlongs over a firm course.

“I didn’t do much, to be honest. Just held it together, and he took me all the way,” Ortiz said. “He’s been amazing this year since Steve brought him back after a layoff. He’s grown up mentally and physically. He’s doing awesome.”

Steve is Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who has trained brilliant sprinters like champion Mitole, called Cogburn special.

“What an amazing horse Cogburn is,” Asmussen said. “What a wonderful ownership group. I’m so proud that it’s the first time that he ran since WinStar bought into him, bought his breeding rights. For him to validate the form that he has shown all year long in his turf sprints is very special. I loved how good the field was, and everybody was here. He showed how unbelievably fast he is. We’re unbelievably blessed to be associated with this horse.”

Trainer Charlie Hills was happy with Khaadem’s performance and said a rematch at Del Mar was a possibility.

“He’s an 8-year-old, but this is all very new to him,” Hills said. “The gate speed was a problem, and he found himself a little bit too far back to a very good horse, the winner. Trying to give him 10 lengths is not easy, but he’s come through the rest of the field brilliantly, and I’m delighted with him. Maybe we’ll look at the Breeders’ Cup. It could be a possibility.”

Cogburn, a 5-year-old son of Not This Time who races for Clark Brewster and William and Corinne Heiligbrodt, won for the third straight time this year and ninth time overall in 15 starts. He has earned $2,414,330. On Saturday he returned $4.20, $2.82 and $2.50.

Charcoal, One Timer, two-time defending winner Gear Jockey, Coppola, Noble Reflection, Mo Stash, Five o’ Somewhere and Witty completed the order of finish. Grooms All Bizness was scratched. 

Grand Sonata comes up big in Turf Cup

One of these days, Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher thought, Grand Sonata was going to win one of these big races.

That day came Saturday when the 5-year-old horse stormed down the inside of the course and won the 33rd running of the Grade 2, $1,995,000 Kentucky Turf Cup for 3-year-olds and up.

“He is a horse that has knocked on the door on numerous occasions,” Pletcher said by phone from New York.

Grand Sonata, owned by bred by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, had lost seven straight starts before Saturday. Six were graded stakes, two of them Grade 1s. In his most recent race he was fifth, beaten by nine lengths in the Sword Dancer (G1) at Saratoga on Aug. 24. That was at 1 1/2 miles, the same distance as the Kentucky Turf Cup.

Send off at odds of 15-1, Grand Sonata and jockey Tyler Gaffalione laid off the early pace, set by Mark Casse-trained Get Smokin, last year’s winner of the Turf Cup. After setting fractions of 23.65, 47.53 and 1:11.21, Get Smokin faded after getting the mile in 1:34.97.

That was when Grand Sonata began to surge. He moved forward on the inside, beating Highway Robber to that spot, and then held off the late charge of that rival and jockey Jareth Loveberry to win by a half-length.

“(Grand Sonata) cut the corner right in front of me at the five-eighths,” Loveberry said.

The winning time was a track record 2:24.93. That beat the old record set just two days earlier by Harrow, who ran 1 1/2 miles in 2:24.97 in a claiming race. Grand Sonata returned $32.78.

“He got a beautiful trip today,” Pletcher said. “He and Tyler have always gotten along really well, and it was great for him to have that breakthrough win.”

“I broke his maiden. I won two stakes at Gulfstream. I won an allowance race at Saratoga on him,” Gaffalione said. “He’s just a real cool horse. He’s just had a lot of bad luck and rough trips, but today everything opened up when we needed it, and he finished the job well.”

Highway Robber, the second choice in the wagering at 4-1, finished a length in front of Tawny Port, who was third.

“You don’t know whether to be happy with running second or disappointed he didn’t win,” Highway Robber’s trainer Brian Lynch said. “I haven’t digested that yet.”

Pletcher said there were two reasons why he decided to send Grand Sonata to Kentucky. One was the son of Medaglia d’Oro bounced out of the Sword Dancer in good shape. Another was that Gaffalione was available to ride. Javier Castellano, who had ridden Grand Sonata in his last three starts, was injured at Saratoga last week.

“We kind of thought you know what? Maybe we’ll take a chance and run him back in a couple weeks,” Pletcher said. “I mentioned to Todd Quast (general manager of Whisper Hill Farm) what do you think about running him back in a couple weeks? He said they were all for it if the horse was doing well. That was kind of the deciding factor.”

Grand Sonata got his first win of 2024 in his fifth start. Overall he has four wins in 14 starts on grass for his career.

The Turf Cup win was a win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2.

“I guess we have to put that on the radar for sure,” Pletcher said. “If we were to do something between now and then, I don’t know. I’ll talk to the connections and come up with a game plan.”

Integration, the even-money favorite, finished fourth and was followed in order by Anglophile, Cathkin Peak, Get Smokin, King Curlin and Balladeer. Aidan O’Brien-trained Chief Little Rock, who was the 4-1 third choice, was a late, veterinarian scratch at the gate.

Goliad wheels back, scores in Mint Millions

Six days after a winning a $481,200 tune-up over the Kentucky Downs course, Goliad captured the $1.8 million Mint Millions (G3) by one length with a clever ride by Flavien Prat.

Goliad, a 6-year-old gelding trained by Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, led at every call and  picked up his sixth career victory in 19 starts for owner-breeder Ramona Bass. The son of War Front has been especially effective in 2024 with four wins in six starts. He earned $1,195,200.

Sent off at 9-1, Goliad paid $21.14 for the victory.

Assistant trainer Taylor Cambra said it was “very uncommon” for Mandella to run a horse back so quickly.

“It worked out,” Cambra said. “He’s a mastermind. I try to learn something from him every day. A day not learning something new is a day wasted. And there’s not been too many wasted days over there.”

Cambra said Goliad came out of his win in Sunday’s Stickler Mule overnight handicap in good order and was ready for the Mint Millions. 

“That race was like a breeze to him,” Cambra said. “We wouldn’t have run him back if he wasn’t 100 percent. He’s been great all the way coming up to this race, to take a shot. We always knew he had the talent. He’s good right now, and he loves this track. So we went ahead and took advantage of it.”

In the one-mile Sticker Mule, Goliad and jockey Florent Géroux turned in a gate-to-wire victory from the inside post position in the field of nine. Starting from the outside post in the field of nine in the Mint Millions, Prat used Goliad’s speed early to challenge Tut’s Revenge for the lead in the run up the hill in the backstretch. Once they were in front, Prat promptly moved Goliad to the rail where they held forth during the remainder of the one-mile test.

“This was the first time I rode him in a long time,” Prat said. “It felt like he was going easy. He’s a tricky horse to ride, but what a great job by Mr. Mandella. The first part he’s nice and relaxed. Then you do about a furlong and he gets on the bridle and gets his momentum going. If you fight him, he just fights back. So I was just trying to keep him happy. To be honest at the eighth pole, I was worried, because I knew they were coming. He was just brave enough to win, to stay on. Like I said, just a great job by Mr. Mandella."

After fractions of 23.14 and 44.92 seconds, 1:08.00, 1:20.37, Goliad reached the wire in 1:33.38, a length in front of Cash Equity, who was third in the Sticker Mule. Talk of the Nation was third, three-quarters of a length behind Cash Equity. Finishing sixth was Irish Aces, who also was making his second start of the Kentucky Downs meet after winning the Tapit Stakes on Aug. 29.

“Here is your new handicapping angle. Bet the horses that are running back in six days,” Cash Equity’s trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “They ran first and second. For sure we are happy that we got a piece of it. At one point I was getting excited, but the winner just didn’t stop. (Cash Equity) started making his run, but he’s a horse that doesn’t win too often anyway. He always runs second or third. It’s hard to see if he is ever going to get there. We got the trip we wanted. The track is much more fair, and the winner was just the best. Full credit to them.”

Cash Equity came from far back to snag second for Julien Leparoux.

“He had a great trip,” Leparoux said. “Everything went to plan. Just second-best. My horse was trying very hard, running hard as much as he could. But the winner just beat us, that’s all.”

Defending winner Ancient Rome was never a factor and finished seventh.

“We ran a little bit flat today,” trainer Charlie Hills said. “They went very fast and the ground is very quick today. We obviously ran below par. He was a little bit wide and had to take back. It’s a long way to come, but the money is good.”

Reckoning Force, Emmanuel, Irish Aces, Ancient Rome, Tut’s Revenge and Funtastic Again rounded out the finish in that order.

Simply in Front is on song in Music City

Aptly named Simply in Front (6-1) was in front when it mattered, getting up late to prevail by half-length over Pipsy in the $1,767,200 Music City (G2). Vive Veuve was third.

Kairyu was the fastest out of the gate and took the early lead but was quickly passed by Pipsy before an opening quarter mile in 22.78 seconds, and she held the lead through a half-mile in 46.32 seconds.

Winning jockey Luis Sáez brought Simply in Front, who was coming from last, wide into the stretch for the cavalry charge to the wire and was able to get up in the final strides to prevail in a final time of 1:16.01 for 6 1/2 furlongs over a firm course.

Trainer Eddie Kenneally was rewarded for his confidence in the filly. 

“The filly is getting good right now,” said Kenneally, who also won Thursday's One Dreamer with Safeen. “We liked her coming in here, we liked her cutting back to 6 1/2. I knew she would like this new setup here, Kentucky Downs. She hadn’t run here before, but I knew she would like it. Luis rode her with patience. There was some speed in the race. It set up nicely for us. She came home really strong.”

“(She broke) really slow,” Sáez said. “She kind of fell asleep a little bit there. But we know they have a lot of speed and she always came with a big turn of foot, and she did today. Today she ran a big race.”

Buttercream Babe, the 3-1 favorite, had a troubled trip from the beginning and finished sixth. She was second to last at the break and ran into traffic through the stretch.

Simply in Front, a 3-year-old Summer Front filly, was coming off a second in Woodbine’s Ontario Colleen (G3) last out on July 27. She has won three of nine career starts and improved her earnings to $1,412,788 for owner Colebrook Farm. 

Time to Dazzle, Kairyu, Buttercream Babe, Pharoah's Wine, Amidst Waves, Pounce, Visually, Gavea and Regulatory Risk crecompleted the order of finish. Crown Imperial was scratched as were also-eligibles Uphill Dance, Twirling Queen and Toupie.

Neecie Marie endures in Ladies Marathon

Being based in Philadelphia, trainer Butch Reid and owner Michael Milam race a lot of Pennsylvania-breds and therefore tend to race in that state and the East Coast. But they hope to be back to Kentucky Downs after their 4-year-old mare Neecie Marie captured Saturday’s $1.3 million Ladies Marathon by 2 3/4 lengths over 2023 winner Vergara.

It was the owner’s and trainer’s first foray to Kentucky Downs.

“It’s just unbelievable. I’m glad we chose this race,” Milam said. “We were going to run last week in the Flower Bowl (G2 at Saratoga), and Butch called in the middle of the week and said, ‘I think we might want to go to Kentucky Downs.’ She wants to run all day long, too.”

As a Pennsylvania-bred, Neecie Marie competed for the $1 million base purse, still the richest race for which she’s ever competed. 

With Joel Rosario aboard, Neecie Marie closed from last, fanning wide into the stretch, taking the lead with an eighth of a mile to go and drew off to a 2 3/4-length victory over Vergara. 

“She was getting into that huge stride, and she just loved the turf today,” Rosario said. “I rode her to keep her contention, not getting too far back. After that, she just did all the work. I got to the lead probably sooner than I thought I was going to be, but it was good for her. She was having fun, and she kept going.”

Neecie Marie covered the 1 5/16 miles over firm turf in 2:07.16. She paid $10.02 to win as the third choice in the field of nine fillies and mares.

“I don't know if you ever feel that (you’re the horse to beat),” Reid said, “but I felt pretty confident. Let’s say I knew the distance isn’t going to be a challenge, which is the whole key to the race. Actually, Frankie Dettori rode her last time down at Colonial, and he said, ‘You can put her in wherever you want, and she’ll go as far as you want.’ ”

Vergara, seeking to join Snapper Sinclair as the only horses to win three stakes at Kentucky Downs, pressed the moderate pace set by Angel Nadeshiko. As the leader faded, Vergara was faced with the oncoming Neecie Marie.

“Once we passed the quarter pole, I asked my filly, and she gave me a good response,” said Tyler Gaffalione, riding Graham Motion-trained Vergara for the first time. “But I could hear that one coming from the outside, and she just wasn’t picking it up enough to hold her off. She is so honest. It was a thrill to get the opportunity to ride her. I’ve been a fan for years.”

It was another length back to the late-running Three Priests, a Japan-bred who was shipped from England. The Ireland 3-year-old Greenfinch came in fourth, edging 2-1 favorite Chop Chop. Forever After All, Angel Nadeshiko, Viva La Red and Loved Reiko rounded out the field in that order. 

Neecie Marie is 14: 6-3-1 with total earnings of $1,160,150 including the $592,200 payday Saturday.