Burke brigade tops deep Bluegrass lineup

LEXINGTON, Ky.— Ron Burke’s regal homebred Ubrute (Tall Dark Stranger), fresh from a lifetime-best 1:49.4 victory in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final, returns to The Red Mile in the third of four divisions for the $298,500 Bluegrass 2-Year-Old Colt and Gelding Pace on the Friday (Sept. 26) card.

Slated as the 6-5 morning line choice, Ubrute lands post 8 in his stakes assignment, carded as Race 10 and sponsored by Brittany Farms. Yannick Gingras pilots the Tall Dark Stranger colt out of the Sweet Lou dam Warrawee Ubeaut, who torched the Lexington track seven years ago to pace the fastest mile ever by a 2-year-old pacing filly of 1:48.3; a mark coincidentally matched last season at The Red Mile by another Sweet Lou-sired Burke trainee Looksgoodinloulou. He’ll spar with seven others including the Kentucky Commonwealth champ Captain Apple, who leaves from post 4 for trainer Chris Ryder and driver Dexter Dunn.

Burke and Gingras also earned top billing in the opening Bluegrass division for freshman pacing males, which is also sponsored by Brittany Farms and carded as Race 4. They team on 6-5 chalk Melillo, a homebred Sweet Lou colt out of the Foreclosure N mare Rosemary Rose, from post 3 following a runner-up finish in the $93,750 Elevation Pace at Harrah’s Hoosier Park. Prior to that, the colt with just one win from eight starts finished third in the $300,000 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes behind a pair of Burke pupils including eventual Metro Pace runner-up Frantic Hanover. Melillo will start from post 3 in the seven-horse contest.

The afternoon’s second division for freshman pacing males – slated as Race 6 and sponsored by the Stay Hungry Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms – pins Brandon Blvd, thwarted only by Ubrute in his six pari-mutuel starts, against six others as the 3-5 morning line choice. Dexter Dunn pilots the Downbytheseaside colt for the trust of Bill Pollock, Bruce Areman and trainer Andrew Harris as the colt tries to resume his winning ways off a half-length defeat in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final. The field also draws Funky Buddha, winner of the $100,000 Kentucky Sire Stakes Series at Oak Grove in July. Todd McCarthy drives the Tony Dinges-trained son of Sweet Lou from post 7.

Freshman pacing males will wrap the afternoon stakes action in Race 11, sponsored by the Stay Hungry Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. Trainer Joe Holloway sends Be Sting, a gelded progeny by his most recent star stallion Perfect Sting, from post 3 as the 9-5 morning line chalk. Dexter Dunn pilots the $460,000 yearling purchase off a third-place effort to Ubrute and Brandon Blvd in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series. The seven-horse field also features the Tall Dark Stranger colt Drink To That, out of stakes-winning mare Tall Drink Hanover. Scott Zeron steers that colt out of post 6 for trainer Tony Alagna.

The 13-race card on Friday also features four divisions of the $378,000 Bluegrass 2-Year-Old Filly Trot with the first division – one of two splits of the Norman Woolworth Memorial – going as Race 2. Leading Lady, a homebred Walner filly for trainer Nancy Takter, leaves from post 5 as the 9-5 morning line choice against competition including Out The Window, a Googoo Gaagaa filly for trainer Carter Pinske entering off a 1:54.2 win in the $50,000 Kentucky Goldenrod Final, TheStable’s enigmatically fast Tactical Landing filly Jailbird Jog and Rani Hanover, a Walner filly out of 2020 Hambletonian winner Ramona Hill who sold last fall at Lexington for nearly $1 million. Out The Window competes from post 4 with Andrew McCarthy in the bike while James MacDonald grabs the reins on Jailbird Jog from post 7 for trainer Eric Patalan. David Miller meanwhile pilots Rani Hanover from the pylon post for trainer Tony Alagna.

Trotting fillies hit the track one race later for a deep matchup of bloodlines in their second Bluegrass division, which is sponsored by the International Moni Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. Melvin Schmucker trainee Country Glide, entering from a 1:52.3 win in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final, starts from post 7 as the 6-5 favorite flanked by a pair of fillies out of black-type mares. Inside of her from post 6 starts Next Big Think, a homebred Greenshoe filly out of stakes winner Iteration, with Dexter Dunn in the bike for trainer Marcus Melander, and outside of her from post 8 starts the homebred Walner filly Pub Party, out of stakes winner Pub Crawl, with Tim Tetrick driving for trainer Ake Svanstedt.

Jim Oscarsson, who a decade ago developed eventual global trotting superstar Nuncio, sends a budding Tactical Landing filly-Southwind Chai filly in Southwind Chaska from post 7 in the third Bluegrass freshman filly trot division, which goes as Race 7 and is also the second division of the Norman Woolworth Memorial. Tim Tetrick holds the lines as the filly ships west off a 1:54.4 win in a Kindergarten division at The Meadowlands. She starts inside of an unbeaten Ake Svanstedt pupil in Busy Miss Lissy S, a Calgary Games-Hill’s Angel S mare with James MacDonald in the bike, and a few slots wide of another Ake Svanstedt trainee in Maya Patel Hanover, a Captain Corey-My First Lady filly listed as the 5-2 morning line favorite who is looking to break her maiden in her sixth try of the campaign. Ake Svanstedt drives Maya Patel Hanover from post 4.

The final Bluegrass split for freshman trotting fillies goes as Race 9 and is sponsored by the International Moni Syndicate and Hanover Shoe Farms. The eight-horse field draws Noel Daley’s Six Pack-Sleep Tight My Luv filly Naked And Famous in post 8 off a third-place finish at 42-1 in the $400,000 Kentucky Championship Series final. Todd McCarthy drives the 5-2 morning line chalk in a field that also includes Lainey W, a Marcus Melander-trained daughter of Bar Hopping-The Black Beauty starting from post 5 following a runner-up effort in the $464,400 Jim Doherty Memorial, and 44-1 New Jersey Classic winner Lipstick in post 3 for trainer Anette Lorentzon and driver David Miller.

The Friday program at The Red Mile begins at 1 p.m. (EDT). Friday’s card also features a $7,500 guarantee on the Early Pick 4, which covers Races 6-9. Every Pick 4 and the 50-cent Pick 5, which begins in Race 3, at The Red Mile features a low takeout of 12 percent.

For complete race entries, click here: US Trotting entries.

by Ray Cotolo, for The Red Mile