Millionaire and multiple Grade I stakes
winner Winchester,
who races in the colors of Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Firestone, heads a field of
seven grass runners entered for Saturday’s Grade III Stars and Stripes Stakes,
a mile and a half turf contest that headline’s the track’s Military
Appreciation Day.
Winner of the Grade I Secretariat
Stakes over this course in 2008, Winchester
returns to Arlington
for the first time since that score and will be making his 2011 debut.
The son of champion Theatrical, the 6-year-old horse last raced when finishing
11th in the Group I Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin last
December.
A career earner of more than $1.2
million, the Christophe Clement trainee numbers the 2010 Grade I Manhattan
Handicap and the Grade I Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational among his most
prominent victories. Cornelio Velasquez has the mount.
Among those lining up to face
Winchester Saturday are graded stakes winners William Stiritz’ Proceed Bee and Frank
Mancari’s Free Fighter. The former, a Scott Becker-trained son of
Bernstein, captured the Grade III Hawthorne Derby in 2009. The latter, a
son of Out of Place and now trained by Mike Reavis, won the 2009 edition of
this race when trained by Chris Block. Chris Emigh has the mount aboard
Proceed Bee while Tim Thornton has been named to ride Free Fighter.
Completing the field for the Stars and
Stripes (with jockey named) are: Philip Matich’s Getta Rhythm (James Graham);
KFCB LLC’s Hattaash (Tanner Riggs); Ron McCauley’s Kingofthebluegrass (Junior
Alvarado); and Richard Otto Stables’ Lemonade Kid (Jozbin Santana).