Mr. Misunderstood on target for 'goal' Kentucky Downs race

Owner Staton Flurry has called the $750,000 Tourist Mile on Kentucky Downs’ opening Saturday card the equivalent of the Breeders’ Cup for his 4-year-old gelding Mr. Misunderstood.

“Brad and I talked and decided our best goal for the year should be the Tourist Mile instead of the Breeders’ Cup,” Flurry said the day before Mr. Misunderstood won Ellis Park’s $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile for his 10th victory in 13 grass starts.

“Maybe, maybe not,” trainer Brad Cox said Wednesday with a laugh. 

While usually it’s the trainer trying to keep the owner’s ambition in check, Cox believes Mr. Misunderstood would deserve a crack at the Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf should he run big in the Tourist Mile and possibly Keeneland’s Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile on Oct. 6. After all, the Breeders’ Cup is being held Nov. 2 and 3 at Churchill Downs, a course over which Mr. Misunderstood is 3 for 3, including taking the Grade 2 Wise Dan two races back.

Cox thinks Mr. Misunderstood possesses the talent to be another Miesque’s Approval or Opening Verse. Those horses both won stakes over the Churchill Downs grass during the spring meet, then returned to win the Breeders’ Cup Mile at 24-1 and 26-1 odds, respectively. Miesque’s Approval had won the Firecracker (the previous name for the Wise Dan), while Opening Verse had taken what then was the Grade 3 Early Times Turf Classic (now the Grade 1 Old Forester Turf Classic).

“Who knows?” Cox said. “We’ll just see how it plays out Saturday. But the Breeders’ Cup is on the radar, that and the Shadwell Mile, races with extremely good purses. But I have not crossed the Breeders’ Cup off the list. Obviously he loves Churchill. He’s able to travel and has won at different tracks. But it definitely seems that Churchill is one of his favorites. I’m hoping he really likes Kentucky Downs.

“Moving forward, the Shadwell Mile is an option, a $1 million at Keeneland. He ran a great race in the Maker’s 46 Mile in the spring. He got away bad and was sixth, beaten 2 1/2 lengths for everything. With a good trip that day, I don’t know if he beats Heart to Heart but he’s probably second. Running sixth in a turf race, beaten two lengths, normally there’s nothing super positive off that, other than there was an excuse. He just broke flat-footed.”

Regardless, the Tourist Mile has been a major target for Mr. Misunderstood for quite a while, with the Ellis stakes designed as a tune-up. Mr. Misunderstood is likely to be a heavy favorite in the field of eight older horses in the Tourist Mile, named for WInStar Farm’s 2016 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner who won the Kentucky Downs stakes the prior year when it was known as the More Than Ready Mile and the purse was $300,000. Both More Than Ready and Tourist are stallions at WinStar, the Tourist Mile’s presenting sponsor.

“He’s ultra-consistent, has been very good to us,” Cox said. “We found out he liked the grass early in his 3-year-old year. He’s coming into this race in great shape, really glad we were able to get a race into him at Ellis. He always carries a lot of flesh.” 

Florent Geroux, the Kentucky Downs 2015 and 2016 riding champ, will have the mount. Geroux has been Mr. Misunderstood’s regular rider, though Shaun Bridgmohan rode the gelding at Ellis Park while Geroux was in Saratoga. Geroux also is the rider of Cox’s Kentucky Oaks and four-time Grade 1 winner Monomoy Girl.

Cox also will have Polesetter in Saturday’s $400,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile and Arklow as one of the favorites in the $750,000 Calumet Farm Kentucky Turf Cup next week.