Victory Formation, Curly Jack Top 14-Horse Risen Star
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Photo: Coady Photography
Victory Formation wins the Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park
Led by Victory Formation and Curly Jack —two 3-year-olds ranked in the BloodHorse Derby Dozen—a field of 14 races in the $400,000 Risen Star Stakes (G2) Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
The capacity field also includes invaders from east and west, including Harlocap , who makes his first start for trainer Steve Asmussen after racing and training this winter at Santa Anita Park for trainer Bob Baffert.
The 1 1/8-mile Risen Star is the first 100-point qualifier of this season's Road to the Kentucky Derby, providing points on a 50-20-15-10-5 scale to its top five finishers. Officials at Churchill Downs, where the Kentucky Derby (G1) is contested, use qualifying points as a preference system when the Derby lures more than its 20-horse limit.
The Risen Star is one of six stakes, four graded, on the Feb. 18 program at Fair Grounds.
Victory Formation, the ninth-ranked horse in the Derby Dozen, is one of three entries for trainer Brad Cox, with the others being Smarty Jones runner-up Angel of Empire and Tapit's Conquest , second in a Jan. 21 allowance optional claimer at Fair Grounds.
Perfect in three starts for Cox and owners Spendthrift Farm and Frank Fletcher Racing Operations, Victory Formation stretches out from a mile race at Oaklawn after winning the Smarty Jones Stakes in frontrunning fashion there Jan. 1 over Angel of Empire. Prior to that start, Victory Formation won a pair of sprints in fast time in Kentucky, taking an Oct. 21 maiden race at Keeneland and the Nov. 26 first-level allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs.
California-based jockey Flavien Prat will come in to ride the son of Taprit, who has never raced beyond a mile. The colt is drawn in post 13 but may possess the speed to clear much of the traffic inside him.
Cox's other entrants—Albaugh Family Stables' Angel of Empire, and Robert LaPenta, e Five Racing Thoroughbreds, and Madaket Stables' Tapit's Conquest—are not yet stakes winners but enter the Risen Star in promising form.
Cox is a two-time winner of the Risen Star, having won a division of it in 2020 with Mr. Monomoy and a year later with Mandaloun , who would be declared the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner upon the disqualification of Medina Spirit for a medication infraction.
Comebacking Curly Jack has experience in top-class company, having been fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) last fall at Keeneland. Following that race, Curly Jack returned in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs, finishing second to Instant Coffee after being blocked in traffic along the inside for much of the race.
And The 96th Running of The Kentucky Jockey Club goes to INSTANT COFFEE! pic.twitter.com/VNuN09A1DA
— Churchill Downs (@ChurchillDowns) November 27, 2022
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Jockey Edgar Morales said following the Kentucky Jockey Club that his mount "had nowhere to go, so I just had to wait for something to open, and when it did, he came back to (Instant Coffee), but I was too late... If something opened a little earlier, he should have won the race."
The Cox-trained Instant Coffee returned to win the Jan. 21 Lecomte Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds but is sitting out the Risen Star.
Curly Jack's return in the Risen Star could propel him toward the March 25 Louisiana Derby (G2) at Fair Grounds. The race is longest of all major domestic Kentucky Derby preps at the Preakness Stakes (G1) distance of 1 3/16 miles.
Michael McLoughlin owns the son of Good Magic . Trained by Tom Amoss and the 10th-ranked 3-year-old in the Derby Dozen, the colt with a 2-2-0 record in six starts scored his most significant victory came in the 1 1/16-mile Iroquois Stakes (G3) last year at Churchill Downs.
Morales returns in the irons for the Risen Star.
Asmussen—who won the 2022 Risen Star with Epicenter , who would later be voted champion 3-year-old—aims for his fourth victory in the race, running Harlocap, Silver Heist , and the grade-1 placed turf runner Private Creed . The Hall of Famer previously captured the Risen Star in 2016 with Gun Runner and in 2008 with Pyro .
Harlo Stables and Villa Rose Farm's Harlocap changes barns for the Risen Star. His prior trainer, Baffert, is currently prohibited from running horses at Churchill Downs Inc.-owned tracks (of which Fair Grounds is one), having been suspended until early July by the track operator for medication infractions, one of which involved Medina Spirit in the 2021 Derby. Harlocap, a Justify colt, won a maiden race Jan. 22 at Santa Anita Park and worked a bullet six furlongs there in 1:11 4/5 under Baffert's tutelage.
Regular rider John Velazquez comes to Fair Grounds for the mount.
Other noteworthy entries include Determinedly , who defeated Tapit's Conquest and Silver Heist in a Jan. 21 allowance optional claiming race at Fair Grounds; Two Phil's , runner-up in the Lecomte; and the Todd Pletcher-trained maiden Crupi , who has chased some talented runners over his five-race career.
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, February 18, 2023, Race 13Entries: Risen Star S. presented by Lamarque Ford (G2)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
Quiet as Midnight (KY)
Emanuel Nieves
122
Benard Chatters
-
2
Single Ruler (KY)
Jose Riquelme
122
J. Keith Desormeaux
-
3
Shaq Diesel (FL)
Adam Beschizza
122
Renaldo Richards
-
4
Determinedly (KY)
Reylu Gutierrez
122
Mark E. Casse
-
5
Harlocap (KY)
John R. Velazquez
122
Steven M. Asmussen
-
6
Angel of Empire (PA)
Luis Saez
122
Brad H. Cox
-
7
Sun Thunder (KY)
Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr.
122
Kenneth G. McPeek
-
8
Tapit's Conquest (KY)
Florent Geroux
122
Brad H. Cox
-
9
Curly Jack (KY)
Edgar Morales
122
Thomas M. Amoss
-
10
Two Phil's (KY)
Jareth Loveberry
122
Larry Rivelli
-
11
Silver Heist (KY)
Corey J. Lanerie
120
Steven M. Asmussen
-
12
Crupi (KY)
James Graham
122
Todd A. Pletcher
-
13
Victory Formation (KY)
Flavien Prat
122
Brad H. Cox
-
14
Private Creed (KY)
Tyler Gaffalione
120
Steven M. Asmussen
-
