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Street Sense, Rags to Riches kick-off stakes action for Churchill's fall meet
Post time for Sunday's first race is 12:40 p.m. (EDT) and admission gates open at 11:30 a.m. The Street Sense is the day's 5TH race with a scheduled post time of 2:35 p.m. The Rags to Riches is scheduled as the 9TH of the day's 11 races with a post time of 4:34 p.m. The "Stars of Tomorrow I" races share the fall meet's opening day spotlight with the giveaway of a 2014 Churchill Downs Calendar. The first 5,000 fans through the admission gates will receive a voucher that can be exchanged for the calendar filled with captivating images of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs. Sunday's opener also features the first of the fall meet's weekly Family Fun Days. Family activities are featured each Sunday on the Plaza Balcony, and this week children 12-and-under are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes and follow Churchill Charlie on a Trick-or-Treat Parade through the track at 2:30 p.m. Family Fun Days activities are scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Street Sense -- named in honor of James Tafel's son of Street Cry who is the only horse to win both the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (2006) and Kentucky Derby (2007) -- has attracted a talented field of seven two-year-olds, but the pre-race spotlight will shine most brightly on Almost Famous. Owned by Chuck and Maribeth Sandford and trained by Pat Byrne, the son of Unbridled's Song notched an impressive 2 1/4-length victory under three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel in his debut in a six-furlong maiden race on September 13. The colt was purchased by the Sandfords for $500,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida two-year-old sale in March. Almost Famous will break from post three under jockey Joe Rocco Jr., who was named to ride the colt after Borel was injured in a Wednesday riding mishap at Keeneland. Borel suffered a fractured tibia in the accident and is expected to be sidelined for three to four weeks. The strong impression left by Almost Famous in his September bow was strengthened when runner-up Coastline, who finished 13 lengths clear of the third-place finisher in that race, returned on October 5 to score a 3 1/2-length victory at seven furlongs in his next start over Keeneland's synthetic Polytrack surface. The gray son of Speightstown, who is owned by John C. Oxley and trained by Mark Casse, returns for a rematch with Almost Famous in Sunday's race. He will break from post two in the Street Sense under jockey Shaun Bridgmohan. He is coupled in the Street Sense wagering with Oxley's Phenomenalmoon, a winner of one-of-four starts for Casse. Bridgmohan is also named to ride Phenomenalmoon, who drew post two. The major threat to Almost Famous in the Street Sense could be Dan Dougherty's Ride On Curlin, a colt who attracted reported seven-figure purchase offers after he set a track record in a July 13 maiden victory going 5 1/2 furlongs at Ellis Park. Ride On Curlin then finished fourth to Breeders' Cup Juvenile contender Cleburne in the September 7 Iroquois at Churchill Downs before heading to New York's Belmont Park, where he was a late-running third behind Havana, who also is bound for the Juvenile at Santa Anita, and favored runner-up Honor Code in the Champagne. The colt finished just 1 3/4 lengths behind the Champagne winner and was 6 3/4 lengths clear of the fourth-place finisher. Among those who finished behind Ride On Curlin that day were Hopeful winner Strong Mandate and Debt Ceiling, the winner of Churchill's Bashford Manor in late June. Trained by William Gowan, the son of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin will be ridden in the Street Sense by Corey Lanerie and is set to start from post position five. The only stakes winner in the field is Richard P. Hessee's Chippewawhitechief, who took the Mark McDermott for Pennsylvania-breds for trainer Greg Compton at Presque Isle Downs on September 8. Completing the field are Ichiban Warrior, a winner last out at Keeneland for owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trainer Todd Pletcher, and McKee Stable's Cee 'N O, who won his debut at Ellis Park for trainer Dale Romans before finishing third in the Arlington-Washington Futurity over Arlington's Polytrack. Kentucky's legendary Claiborne Farm will attempt to claim a new spot in the record book at Churchill when the two-year-old filly Vexed takes on seven rivals in Sunday's first running of the Rags to Riches. The race is named in honor of Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor's winner of the 2007 Kentucky Oaks who was named that year's champion three-year-old filly. Following her victory in the Oaks, the A.P. Indy filly defeated eventual two-time Horse of the Year Curlin to win the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first filly to win the third jewel of the Triple Crown in 102 years and just the third of her gender to win that race. A victory by Vexed in the Rags to Riches would be the 32nd in a stakes race at Churchill and would lift the Paris, Kentucky, breeding and racing facility into a tie with Calumet Farm for all-time stakes victories at Churchill Downs by an owner. Claiborne and longtime partner Adele Dilschneider earned a pair of stakes victories in the 2012 fall meet with Sign, who won the Pocahontas, and Lea, winner of the Commonwealth Turf. Owned and bred by Claiborne Farm and Dilschneider, Vexed looms as a major contender in the one-mile race for juvenile fillies. The daughter of Arch scored an emphatic 2 3/4-length victory in a seven-furlong maiden race at Churchill in her most recent start on September 14 and is one of six fillies in the Rags to Riches who are coming into the race off a win. The Al Stall Jr.-trained filly finished third in her career debut at the same distance over the synthetic Polytrack surface at Arlington Park on July 19. Bridgmohan was in the saddle for her September victory and will return to ride Vexed in her stakes debut. Vexed's bid to secure the a share of the record for Claiborne could run into roadblocks provided by Grosse Point Farm's Ocean Boulevard and Danny White's Dream S'more, the only fillies in the race with experience in stakes races. The Ian Wilkes-trained Ocean Boulevard finished fifth in the Matron at Belmont Park in her most recent outing on September 29. She launched her career with a late-running third-place finish at odds of 31-1 in a June 27 maiden race at Churchill and finished fourth in a Saratoga maiden event before collecting her first career victory at that New York track on August 26. Brian Hernandez Jr. will ride the daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus in the Rags to Riches. Dream S'more has won two-of-five races for trainer Eric Reed, including a 5 1/2-length romp in a Penn National allowance race in her most recent outing on September 28. She competed in back-to-back stakes races prior to that victory, finishing third in the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies at Mountaineer Park and sixth in the Tippett on Colonial Downs' turf. Rocco, who rode Dream S'more to a third-place finish in her April debut at Keeneland, will be reunited with the Mineshaft filly in Sunday's race. Four more fillies entered in the Rags to Riches are coming off victories in maiden races as they make their debut against stakes company. Green Lantern Stables LLC's Clever Beauty was elevated to a victory for trainer Rusty Arnold via disqualification in a 1 1/16-mile race on September 20 under the Twin Spires while Twin Creeks Racing Stable LLC's Prepared won a 1 1/16-mile maiden race over Keeneland's Polytrack on October 5. Robert Masterson's Tepin won at seven furlongs for Casse on October 6 at Keeneland while Carson Springs Farm and J K R Investments' Loya scored in a six-furlong maiden race at Hawthorne. The Rags to Riches field is completed by Brittany Stover's Hot and Dangerous, a Charles Town maiden winner on August 31 who is exiting a fifth-placing at Laurel Park on September 27 against optional claiming company. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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