Completed Pass Seeks $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Repeat
Completed Pass Seeks $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Repeat
Wild About Star Returns for Title Defense in $100,000 The Very One
BALTIMORE – More than a year since becoming a stakes winner last spring over the same track, Robert D. Bone’s Completed Pass returns to Pimlico Race Course with sights set on a repeat victory in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Thursday, Oct. 1.
The 15th running of the McKay for 3-year-olds and up and the 21st renewal of the $100,000 The Very One for fillies and mares 3 and older, both sprinting five furlongs on turf, join the $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) in opening a spectacular Preakness weekend of 16 stakes, nine graded, worth $3.35 million in purses featuring the 145th Preakness (G1) Saturday, Oct. 3.
Post time for the first of 10 races Thursday is 12:40 p.m.
Completed Pass joined trainer Claudio Gonzalez’s string for the 2019 season and promptly won three of his first four starts for the new connections including a one-length victory as the favorite in last year’s McKay over Tempt Me Twice, who also returns Thursday.
Gonzalez is confident that familiarity with the track as one of just three horses in the field of 10 to have run at Pimlico, along with Tempt Me Twice and 2019 allowance winner Love You Much, will serve to benefit Completed Pass.
“It helps that he raced there last year because he knows the track already and especially good because he won,” Gonzalez said. “It would be really nice if he could win it again. He’s doing really good. I believe he’s doing the best he ever has.”
Completed Pass enters the McKay off an effort in the 5 ½-furlong Laurel Dash Sept. 7 where he clipped heels at the five-sixteenths pole and nearly went down but recovered quickly and went on to a three-quarter-length win under Angel Cruz, who returns to ride from Post 6.
“Last time was a big race because when stumbled I was like, ‘Yikes,’” Gonzalez said. “In that one second, you think of a lot but to come back and win the race was amazing. Not just any horse can do that. They need to have a big heart.”
Lynch Racing’s Francatelli has put together three straight front-running victories including an Aug. 15 off-the-turf allowance at Laurel and the five-furlong King Corrie Stakes Sept. 12 on the Woodbine turf. Based at Laurel, the 3-year-old City Zip gelding went unraced at 2 and debuted running second June 5 over his home course.
Joe Bravo has the call on Francatelli from outside Post 10.
Altamira Racing Stable, Rafter JR Ranch, STD Racing Stable and A. Miller’s well-traveled Texas Wedge, winner of the Joe Hernandez (G2) at Santa Anita and World of Trouble Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park in January, has since run third in the Jaipur (G1) at Belmont Park and 10th last out in the Shakertown (G2) July 11 at Keeneland. Paco Lopez rides for trainer Peter Miller.
Texas Wedge will carry topweight of 125 pounds including jockey Paco Lopez from Post 2.
Michael Hui, Hooties Racing and WSS Racing’s 7-year-old gelding Tiger Blood, trained by Mike Maker, owns 19 wins from 49 lifetime starts and goes after his third career stakes victory and first since April 2017 in the McKay. In his last race, he was beaten only four lengths when ninth in the Turf Sprint (G3) Sept. 12 at Kentucky Downs.
Trevoer McCarthy rides Tiger Blood from Post 8.
Love You Much, third in the Laurel Dash, Axtell, Dr. Feelgood, Fair Catch and Hollis complete the field.
Wild About Star Returns for Title Defense in $100,000 The Very One
Brittlyn Stable, Inc.’s Wild About Star, winless in her only two starts this year, looks to get back on the winning track in a familiar spot when she returns to Pimlico Race Course Thursday to defend her title in the $100,000 The Very One.
Wild About Star, a 6-year-old daughter of multiple stakes winner Star Guitar, sprung a mild upset in last year’s The Very One by 1 ¾ lengths over Jo Jo Air, who is the only other returnee from 2019. Five of her six career wins have come on the grass but she has not raced on the surface since last summer after her two starts this year were rained off.
Fifth in the Incredible Revenge Stakes at Monmouth Park following her Pimlico score, Wild About Star didn’t return until running fifth to The Very One foe Mr. Al’s Gal in an optional claiming allowance July 23 at Delaware Park. Most recently she tired to third after chasing the pace in a similar spot Aug. 20, also at Delaware.
“After the last race she ran at Monmouth, the owner and I decided to give her time off and see how she’s doing and we decided to bring her back,” trainer Jose Camejo said. “She ran two races on the dirt because they came off the turf and now she’s doing really good. We’ll see if we can get lucky a second time and win again.
“I feel good about her. She’s much better than she was before,” he added. “She’s in the right shape right now, she looks really good and she’s doing very well. I think we’ve got a good chance.”
Alex Cintron rides Wild About Star, the 124-pound co-topweight, from Post 5 in a field of 16 that includes main-track-only entrant Never Enough Time and also-eligible Philipine Cobra.
Among the challengers to Wild About Star will be Lael Stables’ Chalon, a seven-time stakes winner less than $9,000 away from $1 million in career earnings who is entered to make her turf debut. The 6-year-old Dialed In mare has raced once previously at Pimlico taking last year’s Skipat, contested at six furlongs on the main track.
Chalon opened her season finishing off the board in the 6 ½-furlong Vagrancy (G3) June 27 at Belmont Park, her first start in nearly nine months. She followed up by registering back-to-back wins in the Dashing Beauty at Monmouth and Incredible Revenge Aug. 16 at Monmouth, a race that was originally carded for the turf.
In her last start, Chalon stumbled out of the gate and chased the pace before getting up to be second behind Never Enough Time in the six-furlong Alma North Sept. 7 at Laurel Park. She drew Post 14 with Trevor McCarthy up.
Chalon’s stablemate, Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson’s Ode to Joy, is also entered with Sheldon Russell named to ride from Post 7. Ode to Joy, a 5-year-old daughter of Grade 1 turf winner Artie Schiller, was fourth to Chalon in the Incredible Revenge and has never won a stakes, also finishing fourth in the Feb. 22 Lightning City.
Wesley Ward-trained Jo Jo Air has won twice in five starts since coming up short in last year’s The Very One, an optional claiming allowance last December at Gulfstream Park and the five-furlong Daisycutter Handicap July 24 on the Del Mar turf, her most recent race. Paco Lopez has the call from Post 8.
LC Racing’s Captain Sam has respectively finished fourth and fifth in two stakes attempts, the 2018 and 2019 Power by Far at Parx, both times rained off the turf to the main track. The 5-year-old mare comes in off a 2 ¼-length optional claiming allowance win as the favorite sprinting five furlongs at Penn National, her first win in four tries on grass.
“She goes either way. If it rains off she loves the slop, too,” trainer Robert E. ‘Butch’ Reid Jr. said. “The main thing with her is the distance. She can’t really get much past five-eighths so you have to run in those races when you have the opportunity. She’s had two or three breezes that have been real nice so we’ll go ahead and take a shot.”
Sophomores Foolish Humor, Giggling and Hear My Prayer and older horses A Great Time, Dendrobia, Tracy Ann’s Legacy, Peaceful and Not In Jeopardy round out the field.
