Don Brumfield

STEP ONE OF MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, CASSE AIMS FOR BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC WITH FOSTER WINNER POOL PLAY – Mark Casse’s decision to run William Farish Jr.’s Pool Play in Saturday’s 30^th running of the $500,000-added Stephen Foster Handicap Presented by Abu Dhabi (Grade I) was not a wild stab or a whim, as racing fans across the country discovered when the 6-year-old son of Silver Deputy stormed through the stretch to edge Mission Impazible by a neck at 36-1 odds.

A three-time winner of the Sovereign Award that annually honors Canada’s top trainer, Casse sent Pool Play to the Foster with a specific mission: to determine if the distance-loving horse, after 27 races on synthetic and turf courses, would fare on a dirt course.  If he ran as well over the Churchill Downs dirt as Casse hoped, step two would be a bid for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) at the Louisville track on Nov. 5.

Pool Play handled Saturday’s initial test with aplomb when he posted the third-largest upset in the three-decade history of the Stephen Foster.  On Sunday, Casse was working up a plan to get him to the next step.

“It’s nice when things work, when you have a plan and it works,” Casse said on the morning after his most important win at Churchill Downs.  “I understood him being that big a price.  Here’s a horse running against some of the best older horses and they all had proven form on the dirt.  Well, here we had a horse who had never ran on it, so could understand.”

Along with watching Pool Play blossom from an unknown factor to Breeders’ Cup Classic contender in the Foster, the Stephen Fsoter upset was special to Casse for personal reasons.  The Indianapolis native spent his early years as a trainer beneath the historic Twin Spires, and has a 1988 Spring Meet training title so show for it.

"It was a real proud moment for a lot of reasons,” Casse said. “One is when you do something that’s a little unorthodox, that’s always nice.  And Churchill is where I started.  Churchill is special and always has been.  To win a race like that at Churchill Downs means a lot.”

Casse believed that the Breeders’ Cup Classic’s 1 ¼-mile distance fits Pool Play perfectly, but the horse’s dirt prowess was a question mark.  If Pool Play would handle any dirt course, Casse felt it would be the one-mile main track at Churchill Downs. Casse believes the course is extraordinarily kind to horses that run well on turf and synthetic courses.  While Pool Play’s home base at Toronto’s Woodbine is a synthetic Polytrack surface, Casse sees difference in Woodbine’s manufactured footing and Mother Nature’s dirt at Churchill.

“I was out there (on the Churchill dirt) this morning watching horses train and you can see they get into the ground only about two inches, at most,” Casse said.  “If you walk across Churchill Downs and you walk across Woodbine’s racetrack, that’s how much they penetrate the surface.  It’s almost identical.”

It’s Casse’s opinion that the clay that is an important part of the make-up of Churchill Downs’ sandy loam surface is the key ingredient that makes the Louisville surface is comfortable to horses that do their best running on synthetic or turf courses, or possess pedigrees that point toward those surfaces.

Whatever the case, Casse’s plan worked well for Pool Play in the Stephen Foster.  Now he’s looking to formulate a plant over the coming weeks that will get his veteran back to Churchill Downs and ready to offer his best effort against an expected international field the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“We’ve been planning to go to Saratoga with a string, so what I think I’ll do is take him to Saratoga and see how he trains over the dirt,” Casse said.  “Just because you like the dirt at Churchill Downs doesn’t mean you’re going to like it at Saratoga.  We’ll train him there and if he trains all right we’ll think about the Whitney (GI on Aug. 6 at Saratoga).  Our number one goal will be the Breeders’ Cup.  How we get there is kind of secondary, really.  So everything we do from now on will be that kind of plan.  I wouldn’t even be shocked if he ran on the grass again.”

The $327,127 winner’s share of the Stephen Foster purse boosted Pool Play’s career earnings to $909,556 with a record of 6-6-5 from 28 starts.  His only other graded stakes win came in the 2009 Durham Cup (GIII) on Polytrack at Woodbine. In his previous start, Pool Play finished second on turf in the Grade II Elkhorn at Keeneland, where he was beaten by 1 ¼ lengths by Musketier-GER.

So Pool Play’s victory is clearly the high point of the career of his racing career to date, but all that could change on Nov. 5 when, if all has gone well, Casse’s horse gets a chance to shine again on the Churchill Downs dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“What I’m trying to do is get there with a happy horse in the fall,” Casse said.  “He showed what we needed him to show yesterday, and that is that he belongs.  I’ve said all the along the mile and a quarter will be right up his alley.  So he may go to Toronto and run on the grass, he may run in the Whitney – I’m not sure yet.  Obviously you always like to win, but our number one goal is to be the best he can be on Breeders’ Cup Day.”

STEPHEN FOSTER DAY UNDERCARD WINNERS EXIT RACES IN GOOD ORDER – Stephen Foster Day Presented by Abu Dhabi was highlighted by the Grade I Stephen Foster, but also featured four other exciting graded stakes races, including the first Arabian horserace in the history of Churchill Downs. The winners of the three undercard stakes for Thoroughbreds all came out of their respective races in good order and their connections are looking forward to the rest of their 2011 campaigns.

Glen Hill Farm’s Banned captured the Grade III Jefferson Cup Presented by Abu Dhabi to complete the American Turf – Jefferson Cup double and improve his record to 4-0-1 from seven starts with earnings of $299,076. “He came out of the race good and we’re ready to rock and roll,” trainer Tom Proctor said. “We’re going to the Virginia Derby (Grade II at Colonial Downs on July 16).”

The two other graded stakes races for Thoroughbreds were won by horses from the Ken McPeek barn; giving the 48-year-old trainer wins in five consecutive graded stakes races he has entered at Churchill Downs. Peter Callahan’s Scotus notched McPeek’s first graded stakes winner of the afternoon in the Grade III Matt Winn Presented by Emirates Equestrian Federation. A 3-year-old son of Successful Appeal made a successful stakes debut in the Matt Winn and improved his record to 2-1-2 from five starts with earnings of $121,054.

“He (Scotus) is doing fine,” assistant trainer Philip Bauer said. “He ate all his feed and walked well this morning. We aren’t sure where we will go with him from here. There are a lot of different options and, at this time, no decision has been made.”

The other graded stakes winner for McPeek came with Catesby Clay’s Bizzy Caroline in the Grade III Regret Presented by Etihad Airways. The victory, which gave Bizzy Caroline, a 3-year-old daughter of Afleet Alex, her third win in a row and first stakes triumph, improved her record to 3-0-1 from six starts with earnings of $148,497.

“No decision has been made for Bizzy Caroline either,” Bauer said. “She came out of the race well. She shipped back to Keeneland with Sassy’s Dream and she’ll be trained there for her next start.”

Livin the Dream Racing 2009, LLC’s Sassy’s Dream, a 3-year-old daughter of Flower Alley, won the fourth race Saturday for McPeek under Alan Garcia.

MCPEEK’S CHURCHILL STAKES STREAK CONTINUES, BUT DONE FOR SPRING – While Stephen Foster Day Presented by Abu Dhabi was notable for the upset by 36-1 shot Pool Play in the day’s main event; the win by T M Fred Texas in the first race for Arabians in the 137-year history of Churchill Downs and another dazzling run by Glen Hill Farm’s rising 3-year-old turf star Banned, the big day cannot be discussed seriously without the mention of the continuation of trainer Ken McPeek’s remarkable stakes streak.

The Lexington native secured two stakes wins to extend his streak of graded stakes wins at the historic track to five.  Numbers four and five in the streak were wins by Peter J. Callahan’s Scotus in the Matt Winn (GIII) for 3-year-olds and Catesby W. Clay’s Bizzy Caroline in the Regret (GIII) for 3-year-old fillies on turf.

Previous winners in the streak were Noble’s Promise in the Aristides (GIII) for older horses at six furlongs, Salty Strike in the Dogwood (GIII) for 3-year-old fillies at a mile, and My Baby Baby in last week’s Early Times Mint Julep (GIII) for older fillies and mares on turf.

“I’m proud of it, but we’re not going to dwell on it,” McPeek by telephone from Lexington when asked about the streak on Sunday.  “We’re going to keep going.”

McPeek clearly appreciates the unusual string of good fortune in stakes competition and is quick to credit his team for its work in getting those horses into the winner’s circle in those races.   But McPeek also believes it was past time for his stable to enjoy a good run.

"The truth is that we were very due,” McPeek said.  “Over the last year or year and a half, we had a rash of seconds and thirds in so many nice races – Breeders’ Cup races and Derby preps.  It just seemed like every time we were second, third, second, third.  We were hitting, numbers wise, in our normal percentages in-the-money, but we weren’t winning.  We were just due, and they came in a flourish.”

After his latest win by Bizzy Caroline, McPeek’s Churchill Downs stakes run appears to have ended until the Oct. 30-Nov. 27 Fall Meet.  He has no candidates for the three races that close out the Spring Meet stakes schedule: the $100,000 Bashford Manor (GIII) for 2-year-olds, the $100,000 Debutante (GIII) for 2-year-old fillies and the $175,000 Firecracker (GII) for older horses at a mile on turf.

As special as a string of five consecutive stakes wins with horses hailing from five different divisions of competition is, McPeek takes and extra measure of satisfaction in the fact that all of those winners are pure products of his operation.

“What I’m most proud of is that we developed them all from scratch,” McPeek said. “They all started in our system as yearlings – every one of them.  That’s what I do.”

BARN TALK – Jockey Robby Albarado, who has 922 career wins at Churchill Downs, is just three victories away from tying Hall of Famer Don Brumfield for third all-time in wins beneath the Twin Spires. Albarado has six mounts Sunday (Races 4-7, 9-10). …

With two wins on Saturday’s Stephen Foster Day Presented by Abu Dhabi card and 11 wins in the last week, jockey Julien Leparoux, who has won seven riding titles beneath the Twin Spires, is quickly closing the gap between him and leading rider Corey Lanerie. Leparoux will enter Sunday’s 10-race program with 34 victories, three behind Lanerie. …

Nominations for the final two graded stakes races of the 39-day Spring Meet at Churchill Downs closed Saturday. The nominations for the Grade III, $100,000-added Bashford Manor to be run July 2 and the Grade II, $175,000-added Firecracker Handicap to be run July 4 will be announced Sunday. …

Sunday’s 10-race program will feature a Pick 6 carryover of $19,254 and a Super High 5 carryover of $13,407. The Pick 6 will begin with Race 5 at 2:51 p.m. EDT and the Super High 5 will take place on Race 10 at 5:25 p.m. …

WHO’S HOT – The hottest jockeys over the last five racing days (June 11-18) are Julien Leparoux (11-for-22) and Manny Cruz (9-for-34). Ken McPeek (4-for-9) and Tom Amoss (3-for-8) are the hottest trainers over the same period. No owner has won more than one race during the past week.

WORKTAB – Robert Baker and William Mack’s Dublin worked five furlongs in 1:00.20 on a fast main track at Churchill Downs on Sunday morning for trainer D. Wayne Lukas in preparation for his return to competition in the $76,600-added Kelly’s Landing overnight stakes on Friday’s “Downs After Dark” program.   Dublin, a 4-year-old son of Afleet Alex who won Saratoga’s Hopeful (GI) at two, has not raced since a fifth-place finish in the 2010 Preakness (GI).

Dublin drew the rail in a strong field of eight for the seven furlong race that also attracted Forego (GI) winner and defending Kelly’s Landing winner Here Comes Ben; Captain Cherokee, the runner-up in the Portero Grande (GII), San Carlos (GII) and Palos Verde GII) at Santa Anita; and Cool Bullet, runner-up to Churchill Downs (GII) winner Aikenite in Keeneland’s Commonwealth (GII).

WEATHER – Sunday: partly sunny with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 86. Monday: partly sunny and hot with a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 95. Tuesday: mostly sunny and hot with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 95. Wednesday: mostly cloudy with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 88. Thursday: partly sunny with a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 84. Friday: partly sunny, 83. Saturday: mostly sunny, 85.    

Elaine Jones’ Guam Typhoon took the lead at the head of the stretch and held off Map of the World by 1 ¼ lengths to win Friday’s featured Vodika Collins Purse, named for the first winner of the Stephen Foster Handicap.

Also on Friday’s card, trainer David Vance and jockey Calvin Borel achieved Churchill Downs milestones with Vance saddling his 300th winner at the track and Borel posting his 926th win, second-most all time beneath the Twin Spires.

Trained by Ian Wilkes and ridden by Julien Leparoux, Guam Typhoon covered the seven furlongs on a fast main track in 1:22.61 in defeating nine other 3-year-olds.

The victory from the purse of $49,485 was worth $30,580 and increased Guam Typhoon’s earnings to $62,105 with two victories in four starts.

A half-brother to graded stakes winner Miss Isella and Sir Cherokee, Guam Typhoon returned $17.80, $8.60 and $5. Map of the World, ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., paid $8 and $6.60 in finishing three-quarters of a length ahead of Blame and Garrett Gomez, who paid $6.40 to show.

Earlier on the card in the seventh race, Vance became the 11th trainer to record 300 victories at Churchill Downs when Citizen John won under Corey Lanerie. Vance, a 68-year-old native of Logansport, Ind., is one of only 22 North American trainers with more than 3,000 victories with Citizen John being his 3,012th.

“It’s my home, so it means a lot,” Vance said. “It’s hard to win one race, let alone 300 at one track. It’s a good feeling.”

In the nightcap, Borel guided Smoke Trail to victory pass Hall of Famer Don Brumfield on the list of all-time leading riders at Churchill Downs. Another Hall of Famer, Pat Day, is the all-time Churchill Downs leader with 2,482 wins.

“I didn’t really know what was going on, to tell you the truth,” Borel said. “Jerry (agent Jerry Hissam) just told me what it was.  It’s just been unbelievable.  The last eight, nine, 10 years have just been unbelievable – all my life, really.  I’ve worked hard to get here and have been lucky to accomplish these things and succeed.  I wish Mom and Dad were here to see me, but I know they’re watching.  It’s pretty good; I can’t complain.”

Racing resumes Saturday with the 11-race Reunion Day Featuring the Stephen Foster Handicap card. First post time is 12:45 p.m. EDT for the card that also features four other graded stakes races.

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WOOLLEY CHARTS COURSE FOR MINE THAT BIRD: WEST VIRGINIA DERBY AND TRAVERS – Trainer Chip Woolley said Friday morning that the West Virginia Derby (Grade II) at Mountaineer Park would be the next start for Kentucky Derby (GI) winner Mine That Bird.

    “The West Virginia Derby fits our schedule the best and that’s the main thing,” Woolley said. “From there we will go to the Travers with the ultimate goal being the Breeders’ Cup Classic.”

    The $750,000-guaranteed West Virginia Derby will be run at 1 1/8 miles at Mountaineer on Aug. 1. The $1 million Shadwell Travers (Grade I) will be run at 1 ¼ miles on Aug. 29 at Saratoga.

    After the Travers, the route to the Breeders’ Cup to be run Nov. 7 at Santa Anita remains uncharted.

    “The Breeders’ Cup is 10 weeks after the Travers,” Woolley said. “He does not need an out on the Pro-Ride. He has been on the artificial and he won four in a row over the synthetic last year at Woodbine. I’d like to fly him in there two or three weeks before and have two breezes over the track, but we can sneak a race in there if we need it.”

    Owned by Double Eagle Ranch and Buena Suerte Equine, Mine That Bird walked the shedrow at Barn 42 on Friday, a day after he returned to the track for the first time since his third-place finish to Summer Bird in last Saturday’s Belmont Stakes (GI).

    “I may jog him Saturday rather than wait until Sunday because he is so fresh,” Woolley said. “I’d rather have him like that than the other way. I may go every other day, because I don’t want him to hurt himself.”

    Woolley had planned to track Mine That Bird one day and then walk two.  He said that Mine That Bird would resume full training next Sunday.

    “That way he would have had two full weeks off,” Woolley said. “We may stay here all the way (before the West Virginia Derby) and then go straight up to Saratoga.”

    Woolley, who has been on crutches since tearing his right leg up in a motorcycle accident this winter, was able to put a shoe on his right foot Thursday.

    “First time I have done that in three months and three weeks since Feb. 22,” Woolley said. “The doctor said I can put 20 to 40 pounds off pressure on it and it feels good to be able to walk a little on it.”

RESEARCHER BEATS THE RAIN IN FIRST DASH AT THE DOWNS – Rutledge Farm’s Researcher beat the rain Thursday upon arriving at Churchill Downs. Now, the question is can he beat seven other rivals in Saturday’s 28th running of the $660,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (Grade I).

“We had just unloaded him at the barn at six o’clock when the rain started,” trainer Jeff Runco said. “We didn’t hit any rain at all coming in.”

Listed as the co-third choice at 4-1 on the morning line for the Foster, Researcher shipped in from his home base at Charles Town (W.Va.) for his first venture into Kentucky. Researcher will break from post position five under Calvin Borel, who won the 2006 Stephen Foster aboard longshot Seek Gold.

The Foster will be Researcher’s first start since he won the Charles Town Classic at 1 1/8 miles on April 18 in which he defeated $1.9 million earner Commentator and eight others.  Runco would have preferred a race for Researcher between the Classic and the Foster, but couldn’t find the right spot for the 5-year-old Virginia-bred gelding.

    “There was no race that would fit and then come back here in a timely fashion,” Runco said of Researcher, who has compiled a career record of 17-10-3-2 for earnings of $676,809.  He shipped to New York to win last fall’s Queens County (GII) at Aqueduct.

    Runco, who rode at Churchill Downs but never has saddled a starter as a trainer, explained Researcher’s only off-the-board finishes.

    “The day he ran eighth in his third start, a horse bumped him and he hit the rail and came back with a nasty cut,” Runco said. “In the Stymie (in which Researcher was fifth), he was picking up nine pounds off a layoff and he had to steady two or three times and just flattened out.”

    Researcher has a record of 8-4-3-0 at the Foster distance of 1 1/8 miles.  Although he dodged Thursday’s rain, Runco would not mind seeing some more showers Saturday.

    “He likes the mud,” Runco said. “Two races back when he won by 22, he broke the track record.”

MACHO AGAIN INDICATES HE COULD BE FOSTER FACTOR – After West Point Thoroughbreds’ Macho Again won last year’s Derby Trail, trainer Dallas Stewart told one and all that the colt was sitting on a big effort going into the Preakness (GI).

    Macho Again then ran second to Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown in the second jewel of the Triple Crown, one of the highlights in a year that produced three victories and two seconds from 10 starts and earnings of $731,427.

    Fast forward a year to Saturday’s Stephen Foster Handicap at 1 1/8 miles and there is Macho Again, sitting with two bullet works in his holster.

    “When he is on top of his game, he will show you,” Stewart said. “He has been doing great since the Alysheba and his last two works have been exceptional.”

    A 4-year-old son of Macho Uno, Macho Again has a 4-2-1-0 record at Churchill Downs with his only off-the-board finish coming in the Grade III Alysheba on May 1, when he finished sixth, beaten 4 ¼ lengths by Stephen Foster rival Bullsbay.

    “There was no pace in the race (:48.60 for a half and 1:13.40 for three-quarters), plus it was a mile and a sixteenth,” Stewart said. “He’s better at a mile and an eighth.”

    Macho Again, who won the New Orleans Handicap (GII) earlier this year, will break from post position under Robby Albarado and will carry 117 pounds.

“We’re getting 7 pounds from Einstein,” Stewart said, referring to the likely race favorite and starting high weight. “He’s going to be tough and he’s been looking real good galloping.”

BEAUTICIAN MAY BE FOLLOWING IN BIG HOOFPRINTS – A couple of weeks ago, trainer Ken McPeek called Take Charge Lady “probably my favorite horse that I’ve had.”

    A possible successor to the “Lady” may have been unveiled at Churchill Downs last Friday when Beautician won at first asking in taking a 5 ½-furlong race by 2 lengths in 1:04.71, one of the fastest times of the meet for the distance.

    “She could be any kind of horse,” McPeek said, adding that Beautician could show up in the Debutante (Grade III), a six-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies on June 27.

    Take Charge Lady, who posted a career record of 22-11-7-0 with earnings of $2,480,377, is a daughter of Dehere out of the Rubiano mare Felicita. Beautician is also a daughter of Dehere out of the Rubiano mare Caroni.

    “I picked them both out at Keeneland sales,” said McPeek, who got Take Charge Lady for $175,000 and Beautician for $110,000. “I had that (the breeding) in mind when I got her (Beautician). The two have a lot of the same qualities other than the coloring.”

    Take Charge Lady, who was owned by Select Stable, is a bay and Beautician, owned by Peter Callahan, is a gray/roan.

    The runner-up as the favorite to eventual 3-year-old filly champion Farda Amiga in the 2003 Kentucky Oaks, Take Charge Lady’s wins included Keeneland’s Ashland (GI) and Spinster (GI), and won the latter twice.  She also won the Fair Grounds Oaks (GII) and Alcibiades (GII), and scored Grade III wins in the Dogwood, Silverbulletday, and. Arlington Matron.

MILESTONE WATCH – Greg Foley moved closer to the 300-win mark at Churchill Downs on Thursday when he bookended the card with Gerivello in the opener and Speak of Kings in the nightcap. Foley, now with 297 Churchill Downs victories, is third in the trainer standings with 12 victories this spring, He has one horse entered Friday: Valentine Fever in the fourth.

    Trainer David Vance, who has sent out 299 winners at Churchill Downs, is represented by Citizen John in Friday’s seventh race as he bids to become the 11th conditioner with 300 victories at Churchill Downs.

    Trainer Bill Connelly, who has saddled 998 winners in his career, has two horses entered in Friday’s sixth race: Button Dancer and Princesa Marin.

Jockey Calvin Borel, whose two victories Thursday gave him 924 winners in his career at Churchill Downs, is named on eight mounts Friday. He needs one victory to equal Don Brumfield’s total of 925 for second all time at Churchill Downs behind Pat Day (2,482).

WORK TAB – Adele Dilschneider’s Terrain, working toward the Iowa Derby on June 26 at Prairie Meadows, worked five furlongs in 1:01.80 over a track labeled as “good” on Friday morning. The move was the sixth fastest of 27 at the distance.