Fred
Brei’s
Fort Loudon, runner-up to Willy Beamin in the King’s Bishop (GI)
at Saratoga, will look to bounce back from a disappointing seventh-place finish
in the Vosburgh (GI) in Friday’s $100,000-added Ack Ack Handicap (GIII) at
Churchill Downs.
In
prep for the Ack Ack, Fort Loudon breezed a “bullet” four furlongs in :48.60 at
the Oklahoma Training Track in Saratoga on Oct. 27. He arrived at trainer Nick
Zito’s barn at Churchill Downs on Oct. 30.
“He’s
doing OK,” Zito said. “We’d like him to regroup after his last race. We want to
try to erase the last race. No one knows why a horse sometimes runs a bad race,
but we want to regroup. He’s a real nice 3-year-old and you saw how well he ran
in the King’s Bishop.”
Fort
Loudon will break from the outside in post eight in the Ack Ack and is the 5-1
co-third choice on Mike Battaglia’s morning line for the one-turn mile
event. Neck ’n Neck, who won the Matt Winn (GIII) at Churchill Downs in
June by 7 ¼ lengths, is the 3-1 morning-line favorite.
“The
mile is a good distance for him (Fort Loudon),” Zito said. “It’s going to be a
tough race and Neck ’n Neck looks like he owns Churchill Downs.”
The
Ack Ack is scheduled as Race 9 on the 10-race program Friday with a post time
of 4:38 p.m.