Noble Bird Attempts to Get Back On Track in Bel Ali
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John Oxley’s Noble Bird, winner of last June’s Stephen Foster Handicap (G1) at Churchill Downs, heads a field of 10 older horses entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 86th running of the $200,000 Ben Ali (G3).
The Ben Ali, run at 1 1/8 miles on the main track, will go as the seventh race on Saturday’s 11-race program with a 3:53 p.m. post time.
Trained by Mark Casse, Noble Bird was an allowance winner in his most recent Keeneland start last spring. Off a six-month layoff, Noble Bird was sixth going a mile at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 21 in his lone 2016 start.
Julien Leparoux, who won the 2013 Ben Ali on Successful Dan, has the mount on Noble Bird and will break from post position five.
Chief among Noble Bird’s rivals is W.S. Farish’s homebred Eagle.
Trained by Neil Howard, Eagle has won both of his starts at Keeneland and enters Saturday’s race off strong efforts in the New Orleans Handicap (G2), in which he was elevated to third, and a runner-up finish in the Mineshaft Handicap (G3).
Brian Hernandez Jr. has the mount and will break from post position six.
The field for the Ben Ali, with riders and weights from the rail out, is: Breaking Lucky (Elvis Trujillo, 118 pounds), Are You Kidding Me (James Graham, 120), Ami’s Holiday (Robby Albarado, 118), Doyouknowsomething (Flavien Prat, 118), Noble Bird (Leparoux, 118), Eagle (Hernandez Jr., 118), Hawaakom (Shaun Bridgmohan, 118), Neck ‘n Neck (Chris Landeros, 118), General a Rod (Luis Saez, 118) and J S Bach (Javier Castellano, 118).
Source: Keeneland
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