Runhappy Faces Five in Ack Ack

A string of quick works signals Runhappy is ready for his 2016 debut, and last year’s champion male sprinter has drawn post 5 in a six-horse field for Churchill Downs’ Ack Ack Handicap (gr. III). The one-turn mile race has an approximate post time of 4:49 p.m. EDT.

James McIngvale owns Runhappy, who tore through four graded stakes to end 2015 to earn the Eclipse Award for top male sprinter. Both McIngvale and trainer Laura Wohlers believe the son of Super Saver   is more than a one-turn wonder and seek to stretch him out this year. The hope is the Ack Ack serves as a prep for the two-turn Las Vegas Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) Nov. 4 at Santa Anita Park.

“We’re excited to get him back to the races,” Wohlers said. “It’s been a long time and he needs to run. We realize it is ambitious bringing him back a mile first time back, but we’ll see.

“He’s great,” she continued. “He licked his feed tub clean after his work Sunday and he’s just getting stronger.”

Sidelined by a bone bruise early this summer, Runhappy has worked steadily at Keeneland since late August and prepped over the local strip in Louisville with jockey Edgar Prado up Sept. 15. He recorded a half-mile drill in :46 at Keeneland Sept. 25.

The talent in the rest of the field plays tougher than your average grade III.

Iron Fist, on the rail, was second in last year’s grade II Pennsylvania Derby and third in Del Mar’s Native Diver Stakes (gr. III). Both The Truth Or Else and Schivarelli exit unplaced efforts in Saratoga Race Course’s seven-furlong Priority One Jets Forego Stakes (gr. I). Calumet Farm’s Mr. Z, like Runhappy, makes his seasonal bow in the Ack Ack. Last year the son of Malibu Moon   was unplaced in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland and in Runhappy’s King’s Bishop Stakes (gr. I).

Three-year-old Tom's Ready, winner of Belmont Park’s seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes (gr. II), tackles older runners for trainer Dallas Stewart. At 2 the son of More Than Ready   finished second in Churchill’s one-turn mile Street Sense Stakes.

“The race looks a little speedy with horses coming out of the King’s Bishop and Forego,” Wohlers said. “There’s a lot of speed in there, but we don’t intend on rating him. We’re just hoping everybody else gets tired.”

The Ack Ack shares the program with the $175,000 Lukas Classic Stakes for older horses at 1 1/8 miles. The heavy hitters in the nine-horse lineup are 125-pound highweight Bradester, winner of the Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) this summer, and Noble Bird (123 pounds), winner of the 2014 Foster.

Joseph Sutton’s Bradester won last year’s Ack Ack and exits an eighth-place finish in Saratoga’s Woodward Stakes (gr. I) over the Labor Day weekend.

John Oxley’s Noble Bird ran off with the grade III Pimlico Special in May and has been unsuccessful while chasing Frosted in the Mohegan Sun Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney Stakes (both gr. I) in his last pair of attempts.