The top three finishers from the 2010 edition of the Grade 3 Aristides
Stakes -- Riley Tucker, Atta Boy Roy and Cash Refund -- are back for
Saturday's $100,000 renewal at Churchill Downs, but this year's running
of the six-furlong dash has arguably attracted a much deeper field.
Sidelined at this time a year ago due to infirmities, the gelding Capt.
Candyman Can can stake his claim as the Midwest's top long-term prospect
for the Breeders' Cup Sprint with a good performance in the Aristides,
which honors the inaugural winner of the Kentucky Derby. The Ian Wilkes
trainee, who won four stakes at three including the King's Bishop
Stakes, was sidelined from the 2009 Breeders' Cup Sprint until this
year's Super Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on February 5, which he won by a
half-length.
After posting a neck score in the Sir Shackleton H. at Gulfstream next
out, Capt. Candyman Can ran bravely in defeat in the Grade 2 Churchill
Downs Stakes on Derby day. Leading by two lengths after six furlongs,
the five-year-old yielded grudgingly to finish fourth, a half-length
behind Aikenite. Calvin Borel, who took the reins for the first time in
the Churchill Downs, has the return call for the Aristides.
Noble's Promise ran one of the best races of his career in the
course-and-distance Jimmy V. S. last November on Breeders' Cup weekend.
The Grade 1 veteran has raced sparingly since, and only made his
seasonal debut when two lengths fifth in the Churchill Downs. Seventh in
that seven-furlong feature was Here Comes Ben, last year's Forego
Stakes winner who also ran a dull one in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in
his 2010 finale.
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