New York-bred Future Prospect and 2009 Toyota Blue Grass (G1) winner General Quarters finished one-two in the WinStar Kentucky Cup (G2) on September 24 at Turfway Park and will meet again on Saturday in the 53rd
running of the $150,000 Fayette (G2) on closing day of Keeneland’s
17-day Fall Meeting. The two will break beside each other in the field
of 12 3-year-olds and older horses racing 1 1/8 miles.
Dodson
Skaggs owns and trains Future Prospect, a 7-year-old gelding by Freud
who won several New York-bred stakes earlier in his career.
Tom
McCarthy owns and trains General Quarters, a 5-year-old son of Sky Mesa
who won the 2010 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs.
At Keeneland, General Quarters won the Toyota Blue Grass over the same
distance as the Fayette. After that race, he was 10th in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) and ninth in the Preakness (G1).
Their Fayette rivals will include Wise Dan,
who is coming off a fourth-place finish behind champion Gio Ponti in
the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) on October 8. Last year, Wise Dan’s
connections - owner Morton Fink, trainer Charlie Lopresti and jockey
Julien Leparoux - won the Fayette with his half-brother, Successful Dan.
Wise Dan, a 4-year-old Wiseman’s Ferry gelding, won Keeneland’s
six-furlong Phoenix (G3) a year ago.
Other challengers include Grade 2 winners Mission Impazible, who won his career debut on Keeneland’s main track in April 2009; Workin for Hops, who was fourth in the WinStar Kentucky Cup and millionaire Anak Nakal.
The field for the Fayette, from the inside out, is as follows: Decisive Moment (Kerwin Clark, 116 pounds), Modern Cowboy (Robby Albarado, 119), Jimmy Simms (Kent Desormeaux, 119), Eighttofasttocatch
(Sheldon Russell, 119), General Quarters (Jamie Theriot, 119), Future
Prospect (Edgar Prado, 123), Anak Nakal (Jesus Castanon, 119), Wise Dan
(Julien Leparoux, 119), Guys Reward (Corey Lanerie, 119), Ioya Bigtime (Calvin Borel, 119), Workin for Hops (James Graham, 121) and Mission Impazible (Javier Castellano, 123).