Western Reserve steps up in Tourist Mile

When Kent Sweezey, two months into having his own stable, claimed Western Reserve for $62,500 for Louisville-based Turf Stable Racing, they had a plan: Run the 5-year-old gelding back in a $100,000 turf stakes at Indiana Grand, hope for a placing, and then go to Kentucky Downs for the $150,000 Old Friends Stakes.

That’s a race restricted to horses who haven’t won a stakes on the calendar year, and one in which Western Reserve was third by a total of a neck last year. But Western Reserve blew his eligibility for the Old Friends by winning Indiana Grand’s Warrior Veterans Stakes. So instead, Western Reserve will run in Wednesday’s $400,000 Tourist Mile, part of the Kentucky Downs superb opening card that was postponed four days because of torrential rain that hit the area.

Sometimes it’s good when a plan doesn’t come together.

“His form was really good, he never really runs a bad race,” Sweezey said. “When we claimed him, we thought, ‘Well, let’s take him to Indiana.’ We didn’t think we were going to win. We thought we’d run well. We had thought if we hit the board at Indiana, we’d give him some time and run in the Old Friends. That was the goal. We blew the condition. So every time I see that race in the condition book (which lists the races on which a track will take entries), I think, ‘Wow, that would have been our spot.’ Then I think, ‘We’re lucky to be in the Tourist.’”

Western Reserve is the 6-1 co-fourth choice in the field of nine older horses in the Tourist Mile, renamed from the More Than Ready to honor the stakes’ 2015 winner who went on to win last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile for owner WinStar Farm. The 2-1 favorite is Irish Straight.

Shaun Bridgmohan, who rode Western Reserve before he was claimed, has the mount and will break from post 5. The gelding started his career in England as a 3-year-old, came to the United States at 4, running well and losing the Old Friends by only a neck to fellow Tourist entrant Flatlined and finishing his year with victory in the Fair Grounds’ Buddy Diliberto Memorial. This year he was only a neck off winning the Grade 3 Colonel Bradley and was fourth in Churchill Downs’ Opening Verse before being dropped in for the $62,500 in an allowance race with a claiming option. He finished second that day.

“I like the race we’re in right now,” Sweezey said. “There’s a lot of speed in there, but I’m happy with our jockey. I’m happy with our post. I’m happy with the field. I believe it will be a good track, and we’ll see what we can do. There’s definitely not a monster in there. They’re all good horses, but it’s not like you’re up against somebody like, well, Tourist.”

Sweezey, 31, started on his own in April after being an assistant to Jimmy Jerkens, traveling around with the top handicap horse Effinex. His dad and step-mother, Wayne and Cathy Sweezey, operate Timber Town Stable, where prominent owner Mandy Pope boards broodmares such as Horse of the Year Havre de Grace, champion Groupie Doll and Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty. Rusty Jones, who put together Turf Stable Racing, is a Louisville businessman and Sweezey’s former step-dad, the two remaining close.

Western Reserve won in what was only the fifth horse to run for Sweezey as a trainer. His second victory came in the Indiana stakes.

“It’s for a good group of people from Louisville that I’d grown up with who own the horse that made it even more special,” Sweezey said. “It was really cool they were all there. A really cool win picture, actually. Rusty was part of a syndicate when I was growing up, and he always had horses. Just recently he’s put together his own syndicate. They’re mainly out of Louisville, businessmen who like to go to the races and have fun. They had a big time when we went to Indiana, and I think they’re going to have a big time Wednesday when we go down to Kentucky Downs.”