Jacks
or Better Farm’s Florida
homebred 2-year-olds Fort
Loudon and Awesome Belle each earned a trip to Kentucky to run in
the rich Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs on the weekend of Nov. 4-5 after
winning the $300,000 In Reality and $300,000 My Dear Girl divisions of the
Florida Stallion Stakes series, respectively, at Calder Casino & Race
Course last month for trainer Stan Gold.
Fort Loudon loomed
boldly into fourth on the far turn while racing four-wide in the $2 million
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) after breaking from post 12 on Saturday, but could not sustain his run
and finished seventh behind wire-to-wire winner Hansen and favorite Union Rags
in second over a track labeled ‘fast’ but still holding considerable moisture
from rainfall Thursday and Friday.
Awesome Belle also
drew badly on the far outside in post 14 in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup
Juvenile Fillies (G1) on
Friday when the track was rated ‘good’ and was never a factor
finishing 12th behind undefeated My Miss Aurelia, certain to be voted Eclipse
champion off the performance. Awesome Belle and Fort Loudon are by Jacks or
Better-raced stallion Awesome of Course.
Gold sent out Jacks
or Better’s Awesome Feather, also by Awesome of Course, to win the Juvenile
Fillies last year at Churchill to complete an undefeated Eclipse championship
campaign after she had produced a sweep of the three filly divisions of Calder’s
Florida Stallion Stakes series.
“He (Fort Loudon)
did have a wide trip and only got beat nine lengths for it all, but I can’t
really make any excuses for him or the filly,” said Gold on Monday morning.
“They both qualified to make the trip (with Stallion Stakes wins), which I’m
proud of. They’re both on the farm in Ocala for three weeks for a little rest and
then we’ll bring them back down to get ready for races at Gulfstream Park.”
Another
Calder-developed filly ran in the Juvenile Fillies as Stride Rite Racing’s
Kentucky homebred Frolic’s Revenge finished ninth for trainer Milt Wolfson
after she “raced well wide throughout,” according to Equibase footnotes,
under jockey John Velazquez.
A daughter of
Vindication out of multiple stakes winner Stormy Frolic, Frolic’s Revenge won
two of five starts with a second and two thirds at Calder before her first trip
to Kentucky when she finished a good fourth in the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland on Oct. 7.
“She’s back
training here,” said Wolfson on Monday morning. “She was pretty knocked out
from the trip. She didn’t have much chance in the race with the wide trip, but
she came back okay and we’ll see where we go from here.” The veteran horseman
has trained three generations of Frolic’s Revenge’s distaff family for Stride
Rite Racing Stables.