Finding Way Through Strong Downs After Dark Card

All five graded stakes to be run in North America June 15 are at Churchill Downs, where a "Downs After Dark" program gets underway at 6:00 pm Eastern. It is highlighted by the $600,000 Stephen Foster (G2) and $250,000 Fleur de Lis Handicap, which are Breeders' Cup Challenge events for their respective divisions.

The Foster and Fleur De Lis are in the midst of a classy pick five that starts with the $150,000 Matt Winn (G3) and $250,000 Wise Dan (G2T), and concludes with the $150,000 Regret (G3T).

Earlier in the day there is a "Cross County Pick Five" (click here for free past performances) linking stakes from Delaware Park, Monmouth Park and Belmont Park. That sequence starts with the $100,000 Obeah, the local prep for the $750,000 Delaware Handicap (G2) July 13. Leg C is the $75,000 Honey Bee at Monmouth, where Jason Servis sends out three contenders including morning-line favorite A Bit of Both. The cash-out leg at Belmont is the $100,000 Dancin Renee, where stablemates and half sisters Holiday Disguise and Midnight Disguise are the first two betting choices for Linda Rice.

Matt Winn (CD, race 5, 8:03): This 1 1/16-mile route is tough to get a handle on, as the septet of sophomores last raced at five different venues. Mr. Money (6) owns both of the group's wins at Churchill Downs on a fast track, and his score in the Pat Day Mile (G3) was flattered when second finisher Hog Creek Hustle returned to upset the Woody Stephens Presented by Mohegan Sun (G1).

Nolo Contesto (8) has had two months off since tangling with Roadster and Game Winner in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), in which he contested the pace to the top of the stretch. He gets reunited with Joel Rosario, fresh off a brilliant ride aboard Belmont Stakes (G1) hero Sir Winston last Saturday.

My one thought at a bust-out to start the sequence is Armistice Day (7). While he is a trouble-prone sort who has only run on turf and synthetic surfaces up to now, he may like the surface change since his dam Harmony Lodge was a five-time graded stakes winner on dirt, and she has produced two dirt winners.

A - 3, 6

B - 7

Wise Dan (CD, race 6, 8:37): This full gate of 14 older turf runners is so wide open that four are clustered at 5-1 or 6-1 on the morning line. We're taking two each from Columns A, B, and C, keying on the pair exiting the Dixie (G2T), Inspector Lynley (9) and Admission Office (12).

Inspector Lynley never fired at Pimlico Race Course but had turned in a series of good efforts prior to that, notably a close second in last year's Wise Dan. Admission Office runs well everywhere he goes, and he was getting to highly accomplished Catholic Boy with a rail run in the Dixie.

A - 9, 12

B - 4, 11

C - 6, 7

Fleur de Lis (CD, race 7, 9:12): Elate (3) has had a breather since tangling twice with Midnight Bisou at Oaklawn Park. The 2017 Alabama (G1) winner is favorably weighted under the conditions of this race getting four pounds from 2018 Alabama runner-up She's a Julie (2), who has been best in shorter routes.

Blue Prize (5) repeats a form pattern (stretching out from 1 1/16 to 1 1/8 miles second time back) that produced a win in the Top Flight Invitational last year.

A - 3

B - 2, 5

Stephen Foster (CD, race 8, 9:47): Coming off two wins and a gutsy second in the Gold Cup At Santa Anita (G1) for trainer John Sadler, Gift Box (6) figures to fall into a good trip sitting just off Runaway Ghost, Alkhaatam, and/or Tom's d'Etat (9), with the latter looking like the best of the speed types.

Gift Box projects to wrest command and turn for home with the lead, but he has been a beaten favorite in half of his 16 career starts—six times at even money or less!—so the trust factor with the late-blooming 6-year-old is rather low.

If Gift Box is to be run down, the likeliest suspects are the two other grade 1 winners in the field: Seeking the Soul (4), who didn't get the best of setups when third in the Alysheba (G2); and Yoshida (12), who should relish cutting back to nine furlongs.

A - 6

B - 4, 12

C - 9

Regret (CD, race 9, 10:19): None of these sophomore grass fillies have garnered a graded stakes win yet, but Varenka (4) was grade 2-placed last fall and she returned five weeks ago with an eye-catching performance to beat maidens while scarcely drawing a deep breath.

Varenka, a daughter of Ghostzapper  owned and bred by George Strawbridge Jr.'s  illustrious Augustin Stable, has four siblings who earned at least $150,000 on turf. She may prove to be the best of them based on that scintillating maiden-breaker, in which she shaded 28 seconds for the last five-sixteenths of a mile while finishing in hand.

Hungry Kitten (6) added blinkers and rallied relentlessly for a maiden win on the Kentucky Derby Day undercard. The Kitten's Joy  filly is lightly raced and apparently gets her deep-closing instincts from dam Hungry Island, another Emory A. Hamilton homebred trained by Shug McGaughey, who won the 2012 Distaff Turf Mile (G2T) over the local course, and came within a neck of a repeat the following year.

  

The backups are the graded stakes-placed threesome of Winter Sunset (1), Belle Laura (7) and Princesa Carolina (11).

A - 4, 6

B - 1, 7, 11