Bridgmohan, Cox Dominate Kentucky Downs Preview Day

Jockey Shaun Bridgmohan owned the inaugural Kentucky Downs Preview Day Aug. 5 at Ellis Park, where he won six races on the program, including four for the meet's leading trainer, Brad Cox.

Two of the wins Bridgmohan and Cox teamed up for came with Arklow in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Calumet Farm Turf Cup and Mr. Misunderstood in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Tourist Mile. Bridgmohan swept two separate Pick 3 sequences with wins in the first three races, as well as races six through eight, which were bookended by the stakes.

"In this game you need stock, and when you've got it, I still know how to use it," Bridgmohan said. "Brad is having an unbelievable meet, and he's got some really nice horses. It doesn't matter where it is. A six-win day at any track feels good, no matter where it is. And it certainly feels good to win it here. I've won six at the Fair Grounds and six at Aqueduct. This is the third time, and they all are special."

Four $100,000 turf stakes were run for the first time as part of Kentucky Downs Preview Day, funded by the purse account (and Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund supplements) at Kentucky Downs. Each race was positioned as a springboard to its corresponding Kentucky Downs stakes event in early September.

"I'm glad they created this preview day," Cox said. "It was a great day. Both horses ran really well. Obviously the turf course is firm, so you needed to be somewhat close, so the jock recognized that from the earlier races and throughout the meet. I'm proud of both horses. They ran the way they've been training."

A grade 2 winner enjoying a bit of class relief after solid efforts against the likes of Yoshida and Synchrony earlier this year, Arklow tracked a soft early pace before he was put to a long drive by Bridgmohan and got up in the final stages to win by a head over pacesetter Zapperini. The top two were 1 1/4-lengths clear of 2016 Queen's Plate winner Sir Dudley Digges in third.

"He's a big ol' horse with a giant stride to him," Bridgmohan said. "Brad had talked to me about it and he just basically told me, 'Don't leave him too much to do.' I warmed him up so he'd be on his toes when he left there. We could see there wasn't a whole lot of pace in there. I adjusted a little bit what I needed to do. He laid close and still had enough at the end to get the job done."

Mr. Misunderstood ran like the heaviest favorite on the card should, as he tracked the pace and swung three wide before he edged past the leaders to land a 1 1/4-length win.

"Mr. Misunderstood just keeps on keeping on," Cox said. "He's ultra consistent. I guess you could say we took a little bit of a drop today, but that's the way it fell on the calendar. We thought it made a little more sense trying to get to Kentucky Downs through Ellis Park versus Saratoga."

Siem Riep set the early fractions of :24.51, :48.11, and 1:11.21 before he flattened out in the stretch but still held second over Galton in third.

Mr. Misunderstood, a 4-year-old Archarcharch gelding, was last seen winning the Wise Dan Stakes (G2T) at Churchill Downs in June. He pushed his earnings to $634,354 and improved his overall record to 11-2-0 from 18 starts.

Cox indicated Mr. Misunderstood would be pointed to the $750,000 Tourist Mile at Kentucky Downs, as would his other stakes runners from the Sunday program, Arklow and Will Call.

Other stakes winners on the card included Jazzy Times in the $100,000  Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Sprint Stakes and I'm Betty G in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Stakes.