Making the Grade: Airoforce

Airoforce has won three of his four starts, including the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 28 over a sloppy track. (Photos by Eclipse Sportswire)
Making the Grade, which will run through the 2016 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could impact the next Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Airoforce, winner of the Grade 2, $200,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes on Nov. 28 at Churchill Downs.

Airoforce

Gray or Roan Colt
Sire (Father): Colonel John
Dam (Mother): Chocolate Pop, by Cuvee
Owner: John C. Oxley
Breeder: Stewart M. Madison (Ky.)
Trainer: Mark Casse

It was clear before the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes that Airoforce was a talented 2-year-old, but in that race he proved he was more than just an elite turf talent by winning his debut on dirt decisively. With three wins and a second in four career starts, Airoforce warrants respect. Let’s take a look a little deeper to try to decide just how much respect he deserves on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. 
Ability: A $350,000 purchase in April at a 2-year-olds in training auction, Airoforce debuted on Sept. 5 at Kentucky Downs with a stylish 3 ¼-length runaway win in a three-quarter-mile sprint on the grass. Stretching out to 1 1/16 miles for the Dixiana Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland Race Course for his second race, Airoforce dominated 13 opponents to win by 2 ½ lengths and earn an automatic starting spot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. He improved from an 86 Equibase Speed Figure to a 98 in the Bourbon and was sent off as the favorite in the Juvenile Turf four weeks later. Despite a gutsy effort in the Breeders’ Cup, Airoforce was edged by just a neck by fast-finishing Irish invader Hit It a Bomb and settled for second despite a career-best 109 Equibase Speed Figure.
The Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes was Airoforce’s first start on the main (dirt) track. The 7-2 second betting choice in the 13-horse field on a sloppy main track, Airoforce charged from seventh early to win by 1 ¾ lengths in a visually impressive victory. He earned a 104 speed figure for his dirt debut, showing versatility as well as the determination he demonstrated in his three previous races. The last remaining hurdle is how will he perform on a fast dirt track.
AIROFORCE WINS THE BOURBON STAKES

Running style: Airoforce has never been more than 5 ½ lengths back at any point of call in his four races and he has enough speed to have been within two lengths of the lead after the first quarter-mile in his first two races. That said, he clearly prefers to race behind the leaders, find a nice rhythm and then target and reel in the opposition in the stretch. It’s a good sign when a horse, especially a 2-year-old colt, has the mental capacity to relax and conserve his energy early and then put it to good use when races are won and lost in the stretch.
Connections: The connections of Airoforce should be familiar to casual racing fans who follow the Triple Crown as the same owner-trainer-jockey combination of 2015 Kentucky Derby fifth-place finisher Danzig Moon.
Owner John Oxley has had five starters in the Kentucky Derby and won the first jewel of the Triple Crown in 2001 with Monarchos. Oxley also raced 1995 Kentucky Oaks winner Gal in a Ruckus and 1999 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Beautiful Pleasure, and he won a pair of Sovereign Awards as Canada’s top owner in 2012 and 2013.
The founder in 1962 of Oxley Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration firm based in his native Tulsa, Okla., Oxley sold the company in May of 2003.
Trainer Mark Casse is the son of longtime owner, breeder and trainer Norman Casse and has been entrenched in the Thoroughbred industry since childhood. Initiated in the family business at an early age, Mark Casse took out his trainer’s license as an 18-year-old and earned his first official win in 1979 at Keeneland Race Course.
Casse enjoyed a fantastic Breeders’ Cup World Championships in 2015 at Keeneland. In addition to finishing second with Airoforce, he won Breeders' Cup Mile with Tepin and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Catch a Glimpse.
Casse’s best finish with three Kentucky Derby starters was Danzig Moon’s fifth in 2015. He has won six Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer.
Airoforce’s regular rider, Julien Leparoux, won the 2006 Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice in the United States and added an Eclipse Award as outstanding jockey in 2009.
Leparoux rode Tepin for Casse to victory in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile for his sixth win in the World Championships.
Since taking out his jockey’s license in 2005, Leparoux has amassed 2,162 victories, including 281 stakes wins and 180 graded stakes victories through Dec. 7.
Leparoux has not finished better than fifth from eight starters in the Kentucky Derby.
AIROFORCE AFTER THE KENTUCKY JOCKEY CLUB

Pedigree: Airoforce is from the third crop of 2008 Santa Anita Derby and Travers Stakes winner Colonel John, by Tiznow, and is his sire’s leading earner to date with $516,080. A stakes winner on turf and dirt, all four of Colonel John’s stakes wins on the main track came at 1 1/16 miles or longer.
Airoforce is one of Colonel John’s four graded stakes winners to date as is 2015 Iroquois Stakes winner Cocked and Loaded.
Airoforce is the first runner produced by his dam (mother), Chocolate Pop, who finished second in the 2008 Love Affair Stakes and the 2009 Busanda Stakes, the latter at 1 mile and 70 yards. 
His grandam (maternal grandmother), White Chocolate, by With Approval, was a winner at one mile and was a half-sister (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to two stakes winners. Airoforce’s third dam (maternal great grandmother), Cee Knows, by Known Fact, was a half-sister to three-time Grade 1 winner Sea Cadet and two other stakes winners.
Airoforce’s pedigree is not one that jumps off the page as a classic Kentucky Derby pedigree. At this point Colonel John is still somewhat unproven as a sire and his female family boasts some class and one big name in Sea Cadet, but there is not an abundance of class or stamina.
What does jump off the page is Airoforce’s consistency and steady improvement in his races. And, what jumps off the TV screen/computer monitor when you watch his races is his determination and maturity beyond his years. Airoforce is a very exciting prospect who could thrive on multiple surfaces.