Hidden Scroll Seeks First Stakes Win in Commonwealth

While veteran stakes winner Flagstaff  may be the morning line 8-5 favorite in the April 3 $200,000 Commonwealth Stakes (G3) at Keeneland, all eyes will be on Marc Detampel’s Hidden Scroll  on race day.

The 5-year-old bay has shown a tendency to be unpredictable when he steps up to the starting gate, which beckons the question: which Hidden Scroll will show up? Will it be the horse that bounds away from his field to win by double-digit margins or the horse that can misbehave in the gate and sometimes run below expectations, failing to hit the board?

After making nine starts, winning twice, for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, the Juddmonte Farms homebred was purchased by Detampel for $525,000 at last fall’s Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where he was part of the WinStar Racing consignment. Sent to the barn of trainer Brad Cox, the son of Hard Spun   breezed through the early winter at Oaklawn Park. Then the typical speedball showed a different dimension in a Jan. 24 comeback at Oaklawn, rallying from off the pace to win by 2 1/4 lengths in a six-furlong allowance.

“He kind of had to overcome some things,” Cox said after the race. “When he’s won in the past, he’s just kind of broke and showed the way and didn’t really pass anyone or overcome any obstacles or adversity in the race. That was encouraging.”

Hidden Scroll breezed a half-mile in :48 March 24 at Oaklawn in preparation for the seven-furlong Commonwealth, only his third published breeze since his Oaklawn victory. Training was interrupted in February at Oaklawn for almost two weeks due to a winter storm.

Florent Geroux, who accompanied the son of Hard Spun   in his recent allowance score, will be back aboard Saturday.

Breaking directly to the inside of Hidden Scroll from post 1 will be the John Sadler-trained Flagstaff. The grade 2-winning gelding has earned nearly $600,000 in his 17-start career and looks to add another win now that he won’t be chasing top sprinter C Z Rocket  in the Commonwealth.

Flagstaff suffered narrow defeats to C Z Rocket, the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) runner-up, in last year’s Pat O’Brien Stakes (G2) and Santa Anita Sprint Championship Stakes (G2) before sitting out the rest of the season. Owned by Lane’s End Racing and Hronis Racing, the 7-year-old was shipped to Oaklawn, where he finished a fast-closing fourth in the Feb. 6 King Cotton Stakes before settling for third behind his old rival C Z Rocket and 2020 champion sprinter Whitmore  in the March 13 Hot Springs Stakes.

Flagstaff blitzed a half-mile in :47 2/5, the fastest of 40 works at that distance, at Oaklawn on March 26. Joel Rosario retains the mount.

From the far outside post, Hog Creek Hustle  makes his first start since late November in the Commonwealth. The son of Overanalyze  won the 2019 Woody Stephens Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park as a 3-year-old. Last year at age 4, he won for the first time since that Woody Stephens when stretching out to a mile in a Nov. 27 allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs.

Trained by Vickie Foley, the 5-year-old will be ridden by regular pilot Corey Lanerie in his 5-year-old debut.

Special Reserve , 2-for-2 this year at Oaklawn, recent Gulfstream Park allowance optional claimer winner and grade 3-placed Attachment Rate , grade 1-placed Mucho , and stakes-winning Bango  complete the field.

Video: Commonwealth S. (G3)