Sharing, Four Wheel Drive Aimed Toward Churchill Races

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Sharing, Four Wheel Drive Aimed Toward Churchill Races
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Sharing and jockey Manny Franco after winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita Park

Leading 3-year-olds are a regular sight at Churchill Downs in the spring, though this year because of COVID-19 they're aimed toward races in the middle to late part of May, not on the first Saturday.

Besides Claiborne Breeders' Futurity (G1) winner Maxfield, whom trainer Brendan Walsh said May 5 is a strong possibility to return in the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at Churchill, Breeders' Cup winners Four Wheel Drive and Sharing are pointed toward starts in Louisville for a delayed meet that begins without spectators May 16. Four Wheel Drive is a candidate for an open allowance for 3-year-olds at 5 1/2 furlongs on turf May 17, trainer Wesley Ward said, and Sharing is aimed toward the $100,000 Tepin Stakes for 3-year-old fillies May 23, according to a tweet from co-owner Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. All three horses are unraced in 2020.

Maxfield and Sharing were Eclipse Award finalists last year, Maxfield in the 2-year-old male division and Sharing in the 2-year-old filly category. Each finished third in voting toward championships that went to Storm the Court and British Idiom, respectively.

Sharing, a daughter of Speightstown  owned by Eclipse and Antony Beck's Gainesway Stable, won three of four starts in 2019. Following a debut third at Saratoga Race Course, the Graham Motion trainee captured a seven-furlong dirt maiden race there that was rained off the turf before winning the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) at Santa Anita Park.

After an interruption in her workout schedule this winter in Florida, she has recorded a steady string of breezes at Fair Hill Training Center since March 21. Her most recent breeze was a six-furlong workout on the Tapeta surface there May 2 in 1:13 3/5.

Like the Juvenile Fillies Turf, the Tepin is a grass race at a mile.

Breeze Easy's Four Wheel Drive, a son of American Pharoah , went 3-for-3 as a juvenile, all in stakes. He won the Rosie's Stakes in his debut at Colonial Downs Aug. 31 before scoring in the Futurity Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2T) at Santa Anita.

Ward said he is also planning to run Karak, a dual stakes winner for the same owner, in an open grass allowance for 3-year-old fillies May 16. Both allowance races offer purses of $84,000.

"We've got those two right off the bat, which is nice," he said.   

Four Wheel Drive was slotted to race at Keeneland, which announced in mid-March that it would cancel its spring meet due to COVID-19. At around that time, Churchill Downs postponed the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) from May 2 to Sept. 5.

Spectatorless racing in Kentucky has been on hold since late March, when Turfway Park ended its meet a few days early under a state directive that closed many nonessential businesses.