Clark Runners Finalize Preparation Prior to Friday’s 149th Renewal

Nov 22, 2023 Kevin Kerstein

Ten accomplished horses, led by 3-1 morning line favorite First Mission, are set to complete in Friday’s 149th running of the $600,000 Clark presented by Norton Healthcare (Grade II) beneath the historic Twin Spires of Churchill Downs.

“The Clark is a solid race each year,” said trainer Brad Cox, who will attempt to win his second-career Clark with First Mission. “He’s a horse we always thought highly of and I’m thankful for Godolphin for allowing us to be patient to let him develop.”

The lightly-raced First Mission has only made four-career starts but sports a gutsy victory earlier this year in the Lexington Stakes (GIII). The son of Street Sense was the early favorite for the Preakness (GI) but was scratched from the race due to an ankle injury. He returned six months later in a conditioned allowance event at Keeneland where he overcame an extremely troubled trip to win by a neck of Command performance.

“I think he got a lot of seasoning mentally out of that allowance race,” Cox said. “You don’t see horses overcome that type of trouble and win, especially at Keeneland. I think he’s coming into this race a better horse and we’re excited to see how he can progress.”

There have been 57 3-year-olds to win the Clark but the last one to do it was Gun Runner in 2016.

Breaking to his inside is Laura Barrish’s New York-bred Straight Arrow who will test graded stakes company for the first time. Trained by Mike Dini, Straight Arrow exits an impressive victory last month in the Empire Classic at Aqueduct.

“He took a little longer to get to the races,” Dini said. “He didn’t really want to train at first. He was pretty aggressive. We ended up gelding him and he’s started to get a lot better in the mornings. This will be a good test to see how good he really is especially with how easily he won last time. He’s a half-brother to Disco Partner, who I was told was a little bit difficult to train like him. Right now, he’s been pretty good so we’re going to see how he fits.”

The 4-year-old Straight Arrow didn’t make his debut until June where he finished fifth in a six-furlong maiden special weight at Monmouth Park. Since that race, the gray son of Arrogate sports four victories from six starts.

Florida-based Il Miracolo made his journey to Churchill Downs two weeks ago for trainer Antonio Sano. Owned by Alexandres LLC, Il Miracolo finished a game second one month ago in the Fayette Stakes (GII) at Keeneland. Following that race, the son of Gun Runner has worked twice beneath the Twin Spires: a six-furlong move in 1:13.80 on Nov. 11 and a five-furlong move in 1:01.40 on Saturday.

Friday’s Clark Stakes will run as Race 11 with a post time of 5:48 p.m. First post on the 12-race program is 1 p.m.

Here is the complete field from the rail out (with jockey, trainer and morning line odds): Straight Arrow (Florent Geroux, Dini, 8-1); First Mission (Luis Saez, Cox, 3-1); Il Miracolo (Tyler Gaffalione, Sano, 4-1); Gasoline (Flavien Prat, Todd Pletcher, 5-1); Trademark (Fernando De La Cruz, Vicki Oliver, 6-1); Film Star(Jose Lezcano, Linda Rice, 5-1); Giant Game (Martin Garcia, Dale Romans, 12-1); Happy American (Declan Cannon, Neil Pessin, 20-1); Stage Raider (Brian Hernandez Jr., Cherie DeVaux, 12-1) and Blue Devil (Javier Castellano, Jeff Hiles, 10-1).

Fans wanting to get an early handicapping preview of the Clark can join expert analysts Joe Kristufekand Kaitlin Free, along with special guest David Levitch for “Churchill Downs Today” beginning at noon on www.TwinSpires.com.

KENTUCKY DERBY FUTURE WAGER POOL 2, SIRE FUTURE WAGER RUNS THURSDAY-SUNDAY – Fans will have their second of six opportunities to bet on the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade I) Thursday-Sunday where Repole Stable’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (GI) winner Fierceness was made the 15-1 individual betting favorite while the pari-mutuel field of “All Other 3-Year-Old Colts and Geldings” from the 2021 foal crop not listed within the 38 individual betting interests was tabbed as the heavy 4-5 choice.

The four-day pool, which features $2 Win and Exacta wagering, will open Thursday at noon (all times Eastern) and close Sunday at 6 p.m. Pool 2 will run concurrent with the lone Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager, where fans can bet horses sired by 39 individual sires and an option for “All Other Sires” that were not listed. Horses from the 2021 foal crop sired by Into Mischief were made the 8-1 individual favorite but “All Other Sires” was the 6-1 overall favorite.

Here is the complete field with morning line odds: #1 Awesome Road (80-1); #2 Bentornato (30-1); #3 Bergen (80-1); #4 Billal (99-1); #5 Booth (50-1); #6 Carbone (80-1); #7 Catching Freedom (50-1); #8 Copper Tax (50-1); #9 Dancing Groom (99-1); #10 Domestic Product (80-1); #11 Dornoch (30-1); #12 Drum Roll Please (80-1); #13 Fierceness (15-1); #14 Glengarry (80-1); #15 Informed Patriot (80-1); #16 Kittyhawk (99-1); #17 Knightsbridge (50-1); #18 Liberal Arts (30-1); #19 Lightline (99-1); #20 Locked (30-1); #21 Merit (99-1); #22 Moonlight (99-1); #23 Mystik Dan (80-1); #24 Nash (20-1); #25 Nutella Fella (50-1); #26 Otto the Conqueror (99-1); #27 Parchment Party (99-1); #28 Private Desire (99-1); #29 Real Men Violin (99-1); #30 Risk It (50-1); #31 Sierra Leone (80-1); #32 Stolen Magic (99-1); #33 Stretch Ride (80-1); #34 Stronghold (99-1); #35 The Wine Steward (60-1); #36 Timberlake (40-1); #37 West Saratoga (99-1); #38 Where’s Chris (80-1); #39 “All Fillies from the 2021 Foal Crop” (80-1); and #40 “All Other Colts and Geldings from the 2021 Foal Crop” (4-5).

In the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager, horses sired by Into Mischief were made favorite. To date, some of Into Mischief’s top earners (through Nov. 16) are Timberlake ($475,000), Mirhamadi ($89,840) and Spirit Mischief ($68,575).

Here is the complete field for the Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager with morning line odds: #1 American Pharoah (40-1); #2 Arrogate (25-1); #3 Audible (50-1); #4 Bernardini (80-1); #5 Bolt d’Oro(20-1); #6 Cairo Prince (50-1); #7 Candy Ride (ARG) (30-1); #8 City of Light (30-1); #9 Classic Empire(99-1); #10 Constitution (60-1); #11 Curlin (15-1); #12 Flameaway (90-1); #13 Ghostzapper (20-1); #14 Good Magic (30-1); #15 Gun Runner (15-1); #16 Hard Spun (50-1); #17 Into Mischief (8-1); #18 Justify(15-1); #19 Liam’s Map (50-1); #20 Malibu Moon (99-1); #21 Maximus Mischief (99-1); #22 Medaglia d’Oro (80-1); #23 Mitole (80-1); #24 More Than Ready (99-1); #25 Munnings (80-1); #26 Not ThisTime (50-1); #27 Nyquist (80-1); #28 Omaha Beach (80-1); #29 Practical Joke (30-1); #30 Quality Road(50-1); #31 Runhappy (20-1); #32 Speightstown (80-1); #33 Street Sense (50-1); #34 Tapit (20-1); #35 Uncle Mo (25-1); #36 Union Rags (99-1); #37 Vino Rosso (80-1); #38 Violence (25-1); #39 War Front(99-1); #40 All Other Sires (6-1).

All told, there are six Future Wager pools scheduled in advance of the 2023 Kentucky Derby: Pool 1 ran Oct. 31-Nov.2 (Pool 1); Nov. 23-26 (Pool 2); Jan. 19-21 (Pool 3); Feb. 16-18 (Pool 4); March 15-17 (Pool 5); and April 4-April 6 (Pool 6). The lone Kentucky Oaks Future Wager will coincide with Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 5.

There are no refunds in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager or Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager. Should Churchill Downs officials determine during the duration of this week’s four-day pool that one of the wagering interests has experienced an injury, illness or other circumstance that would prevent the horse from participating in the Kentucky Derby or Oaks, betting on the individual horse will be suspended immediately.

More information, Brisnet.com past performances and real-time odds on the Kentucky Derby Future Wager will be available before the pool opens Thursday online at https://www.kentuckyderby.com/wager/future-wager.

GAFFALIONE HOLDS SLIGHT EDGE IN RIDER STANDINGS ENTERING CLOSING WEEK– Jockey Tyler Gaffalione began the last five days of the 2023 Fall Meet with a slight 16-13 win lead over Luis Saez. Florent Geroux tracked in third with 11 wins. … Trainer Steve Asmussen continued to lead the standings with 13 wins. He held a four-win gap over Brad Cox and six-win margin over Joe Sharp. … There was a four-way tie with three wins on the owner standings between Gary and Mary West, Godolphin, JD Thoroughbreds and Joey Keith Davis and Jordan Wycoff.

CHURCHILL DOWNS READY FOR THANKSGIVING DAY – Racing on Thanksgiving Day at Churchill Downs has been a Louisville, Ky. tradition since 1969. Around 10,000 turkey dinners will be served with all the trimmings, making it the largest number anywhere in the region. Levy Restaurants chefs will begin to cook Thursday’s Thanksgiving meal around 1 a.m. The menu consists of preparing approximately 8,000 pounds of turkey, 6,000 pounds of spiral ham, 250 gallons of rosemary gravy, 5,000 pounds of mashed potatoes, 150 gallons of cranberry sauce and more than 900 pumpkin pies. Gates open at 10 a.m. and the Chef Tables will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The first of 12 races is 11:30 a.m. and the final race goes at 4:43 p.m.

DOWN THE STRETCH – Racing resumed Wednesday for a nine-race card that had a first post of 1 p.m. There was a $2,443 carryover in the 20-cent Derby City 6 that spanned Races 4-9. … We’ve received reports from the North Pole that Santa and Mrs. Claus will be visiting guests at Churchill Downs Friday-Saturday. It’s also been reported that Santa will be watching carefully on the selections provided by Joe Kristufek, Scott Shapiro and Kaitlin Free to determine if they will be on the “nice” or “naughty” list. Fans can follow along with their picks on www.ChurchillDowns.com.