Toast of New York enters Marathon as Breeders' Cup backup plan

A field of 10 horses are signed on for a 1 ¾-mile test over the Churchill Downs main track in Friday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Marathon Stakes, one of two featured stakes races on the undercard of Breeders’ Cup “Future Stars Friday."

The Marathon Stakes is carded as the 10th and final race on Friday’s card with a post time of 6:43 p.m. ET.

The Marathon field is led by Al Shaqab Racing’s Breeders’ Cup Classic entrant Toast of New York. The 2014 runner-up in the Classic returned to training in late 2017 after standing stud in Qatar and recently finished second behind Mind Your Biscuits in the Sept. 29 Lukas Classic (G3) at Churchill Downs.

Toast of New York has been stabled at Churchill Downs since mid-September but is the second also-eligible for the Classic, which is limited to 14 starters. Trained by Jamie Osborne, Toast of New York will be ridden by Julien Leparoux and break from post position 9.

Among the other challengers to Toast of New York is Centennial Farms’ Temperance Hill Invitational winner Rocketry. 

Rocketry had 14 prior starts on the turf before trainer Jimmy Jerkens opted to try the 4-year-old colt on the dirt in the 1 5/8-mile Temperance Hill in which he scored a 1 ½-length win under jockey Joel Rosario.

Rosario has the call once again on Rocketry who will break from post 10.

Another likely major contender in the field is Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum’s two-time stakes winner Dabster for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Dabster, a 4-year-old colt by Curlin, recently reeled of two victories in the Aug. 22 Harry F. Brubaker Stakes and Sept. 16 Los Alamitos Special Stakes.

Jockey Joe Talamo has the call on Dabster who will break from post 2.

Also in the Marathon field is DARRS Inc.’s Stephen Foster Handicap (GI) runner-up Honorable Duty for locally-based trainer Brendan Walsh. Honorable Duty, who finished a head behind Toast of New York in third in the Lukas Classic, sports a 10-4-3-1—$524,360 record at Churchill Downs.

The Marathon field from the rail out (with jockey and trainer): Term of Art (Florent Geroux, Brad Cox); Dabster(Talamo, Baffert); Imperative (Jon Court, Anthony Quartorolo); Finglas (Corey Lanerie, Tom Amoss); Senior Investment (Brian Hernandez Jr., Kenny McPeek); War Story (Irad Ortiz Jr., Jorge Navarro); Big Dollar Bill (Chris Landeros, Ian Wilkes); Honorable Duty (Jose Ortiz, Walsh); Toast of New York (Leparoux, Osborne); Rocketry (Rosario,Jerkens).