Sir Dudley Digges Tops Maker Contingent for Pimlico Stakes
Sir Dudley Digges Tops Maker Contingent for Pimlico Stakes
Curly’s Rocket, Brielle’s Appeal Set for Stakes Debuts May 19
Kenneally Knew Best in Claiming Girls Know Best
BALTIMORE – Louisville-based trainer Mike Maker plans to run four horses in stakes over Preakness (G1) weekend, including Barbados Gold Cup winner Sir Dudley Digges in next Saturday’s $250,000 Maker’s Mark Dixie (G2) at 1 1/16 miles on turf.
The 117th running of the Dixie will be one of eight stakes, four graded, worth $2.55 million in purses on a 14-race Preakness Day program May 19 highlighted by the 143rd running of the Preakness (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
In beating favored stablemate Shining Copper by a half-length, Sir Dudley Digges gave Maker and owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey their third victory in the Caribbean classic run on turf. Sir Dudley Digges also won the 2016 Queen’s Plate, Canada’s version of the Kentucky Derby, with the horse becoming the first winner of both races.
“He’s always an overlooked horse,” Maker said of Sir Dudley Digges, who is 7-7-3 in 23 career starts. “But I think he shows up and runs his race every time. Shining Copper didn’t have the best of trips, like we expected, but Sir Dudley Digges ran great.”
Sir Dudley Digges has won at distances ranging from a mile to 1 ½ miles, winning on grass and also at 1 ¼ miles over Woodbine’s synthetic surface in the Queen’s Plate.
“He’s kind of done it all,” Maker said. “He’s very easy on himself – a pretty versatile horse.”
On Black-Eyed Susan Day, May 18, Maker will have Michael Hui’s ageless gelding Hogy for the $100,000 Caplan Brothers Glass Jim McKay Turf Sprint at five furlongs on turf, then will run Three Diamonds Farm’s California Night in the $100,000 BMW James W. Murphy for 3-year-olds at a mile on turf and Battle at Sea in the $100,000 LARC Sir Barton for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles on dirt on Preakness Day, May 19.
California Night is coming out of a 10th-place finish in Keeneland’s Blue Grass (G2) April 7 after winning an Aqueduct allowance race. Battle at Sea, also owned by Three Diamonds, took four races to break his maiden but now has won two straight, including the Fair Grounds’ Crescent City Derby for Louisiana-breds.
Hui and Maker had long been fans of Hogy, finishing behind him with other horses on several occasions, when they claimed the gelding at age 8 for $80,000 at Saratoga last summer.
They promptly won the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint (G3) to get out on the horse. Hogy subsequently was second in a stakes at Keeneland before Hui put up $100,000 to run him in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1), in which he finished 11th.
Hogy returned to at age 9 to win a stakes Jan. 28 at Sam Houston, then stretched out to a mile to capture Gulfstream Park’s Canadian Turf (G3) March 3 – his 19th career victory in 51 starts.
At Pimlico, Hogy seemingly gets a class break from his last start, when he faded to last of nine in Keeneland’s Maker’s 46 Mile (G1), a race in which the lack of pace defused his closing style.
“It was probably the company, and he had a wide trip with no pace,” Maker said.
Curly’s Rocket, Brielle’s Appeal Set for Stakes Debuts May 19
Kentucky-based trainer Al Stall Jr. plans to give two horses their first taste of stakes competition on the Preakness Day undercard with Curly’s Rocket in the $200,000 ClearSpan Chick Lang Stakes for 3-year-olds on dirt and Brielle’s Appeal in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes for females on turf.
Brielle’s Appeal, owned by Dixiana Farms, has the look of a star in the female turf sprinter ranks, winning first time out at Kentucky Downs. Following a third in a Keeneland allowance race last fall, she won by 5 ½ lengths in New Orleans and repeated by the same margin in a second-level allowance race back at Keeneland. The daughter of turf champion English Channel has never been behind a horse at any point of call in her races.
“She’s just done her allowance conditions, but she’s done them well. The form she’s in, you might as well try to get some black type,” Stall said. “She’s been quick. She won her first race at Kentucky Downs, which is hard to do. We talked about stretching her out, but there are just so many opportunities sprinting on turf. She’s just so fast. You’d think going long that she’d burn up too much energy.”
Brielle’s Appeal worked four furlongs in 49.20 seconds Friday at Churchill Downs.
Frank Fletcher Racing Operations’ 3-year-old Curly’s Rocket is two-for-four, with one second. The son of Into Mischief started out with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, winning on his third attempt before being shipped to Stall to race at Oaklawn Park in Fletcher’s home state of Arkansas. Curly’s Rocket captured a six-furlong allowance race in the first and so far only start for his new barn.
“This is the next step in our region,” Stall said. “Frank just moved him because of geography. He’d just broken his maiden by in California so it was kind of a layup really to run in an a-other-than at Oaklawn, and he handled it well. Once you win two, 3-year-olds have to go somewhere.
“He’s just a big fast horse,” he added. “We’re not thinking about stretching him out, either. We just want to hit the board in the Preakness [Day] race.”
Curly’s Rocket worked Saturday morning at Churchill, going a half-mile in 49.20 seconds.
Kenneally Knew Best in Claiming Girls Know Best
When trainer Eddie Kenneally claimed Girls Know Best for $40,000 last fall at Keeneland, he thought she might turn into a nice grass horse.
It proved a fortuitous claim, as the daughter of Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) winner Caleb’s Posse seeks her fourth victory in six starts for Kenneally in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes for fillies and mares at five furlongs on grass on the Preakness undercard.
“She’s been a nice claim, not doubt about it,” Kenneally said. “We’ve claimed some lesser horses, too, that didn’t pan out. We were looking for a nice, sound horse that could run. The filly had already won five races, so we knew she could run. She’d never run on the grass up to that point.
“We ran her back on dirt [for $50,000 claiming], and she ran well and won, then we brought her to the grass and she improved,” he added. “She won a stakes Pegasus Day at Gulfstream, was second in a stakes at Gulfstream and won a wide-open allowance race at Keeneland, all on the grass. She’s only a 4-year-old, so she’s got some upside, for sure.”
Girls Know Best is eight for 14 overall. While Kenneally is hoping for more success on the track, he says he’ll ultimately put her in one of the breeding-stock auctions in Lexington.
“I trade and buy and sell a lot of horses, and that’s kind of what I’ll do with her,” he said. “I wouldn’t breed her; I’ve never bred a horse. She’ll be in the sale.”
