Owner: Rich Strike is ‘70 percent’ to start in Grade 1 Clark
Rich Strike
was an 80-1 long shot when he won the Kentucky Derby. On Wednesday his owner said
he is roughly 2-5 to start next week in the Grade 1, $750,000 Clark Stakes at
Churchill Downs.
“We’re about 70 percent certain we are,” Rick Dawson told Horse Racing Nation on Wednesday. “Maybe even more.”
The 1 1/8-mile race Nov. 25 comes 20 days after Rich Strike finished a distant fourth to Flightline in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland. Fourteen other horses also were nominated to race in the 148th running of the Clark. Entries will be drawn Sunday.
“The first blood (work) after the Breeders’ Cup was great,” trainer Eric Reed told HRN. “We’ll get another one done on him Saturday. As long as he trains good this week and then the next week, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Dawson said Rich Strike, a 3-year-old colt by Keen Ice, was compromised in the Breeders’ Cup after Epicenter got hurt and was pulled up right in front of him.
“When Epicenter broke down and took us out, we just didn’t really get a chance to get going until the last three-eighths, maybe five-eighths,” Dawson said. “Even when Sonny (León) got off the mount that day, he was like, ‘We never really got a shot.’ He said, ‘He’s not tired. If you want to run back in the Clark, he’s more than ready.’ ”
Reed was more emphatic Tuesday, saying, “Richie is tearing the barn down.”
If Rich Strike were to win the Clark, it would give him a second Grade 1 victory in 2022 and make him one of five 3-year-old males to hold that distinction in North American races, joining Cyberknife, Jack Christopher, Modern Games and Taiba.
Even before widely acclaimed division leader Epicenter was retired because of the broken leg he suffered in the Breeders’ Cup, Reed felt Rich Strike could get into the Eclipse Award mix by parlaying his Kentucky Derby upset with a Grade 1 victory in open company.
“If he wins, it would give him two Grade 1s and the only 3-year-old to beat older horses,” Reed said. “I think he’d have to have a shot.”
If the decision is made to enter the Clark, Reed said Rich Strike would not be breezed but would be sent to Churchill Downs on Tuesday for daily gallops.
According to the Churchill Downs communications team, Rich Strike could be the first horse to pull off the Derby-Clark double in the same year since His Eminence in 1901. That was the last time the Clark was restricted to 3-year-olds.
Of the other horses nominated to the Clark, allowance winner Proxy was declared probable for the race by trainer Michael Stidham. Joe Sharp said “we are strongly considering” the race for last-out allowance victor Scarlet Fusion.
Brad Cox said he was not sure which of his two nominees – four-time Grade 3 winner Fulsome and last month’s Fayette (G2) victor West Will Power – might be entered.
Oaklawn Handicap (G2) victor Last Samurai, long-shot Kelso Handicap (G2) winner Double Crown, Ack Ack (G3) runner-up Injunction, 2021 fourth-place Clark finisher Militarist and recent allowance winner Trademark also were nominated, but their trainers’ intentions were not known Wednesday afternoon.
Art Collector, Chess Chief, King Fury and Mr. Wireless all were said by their trainers to be unlikely to go in the Clark.
Keystone Field, who won Saturday’s Claiming Crown Jewel, seemed doubtful to wheel back next week, although trainer Mike Maker did not say one way or the other yet.