Almost Famous likely for Matt Winn

Almost Famous likely for Matt Winn

After an impressive 7 3/4-length victory defeating older horses at Churchill

Downs on Saturday, Chuck and Maribeth Sandford LLC's Almost

Famous will be pointed to the Grade 3, $100,000-added Matt Winn on Saturday, June 14.

"The Matt Winn is definitely what we're pointing for with him," trainer Pat

Byrne said. "I was hoping he'd run the kind of race he did (Saturday) and I was

honestly very impressed by him. He came out of the race perfectly."

Almost Famous broke from post position four in Saturday's allowance race and was

immediately encouraged to go to the lead on the rail by Hall of Fame

jockey Calvin Borel. He went 1 1/16 miles gate-to-wire in 1:42 3/5 and

received a 106 BRIS Speed rating.

"We've got three weeks until the Matt Winn and we'll just blow 'em out," Byrne

said. "There's plenty of time before the race and he'll be ready. So it's a good

spot and we've got a lot of time and races between now and the end of the year

so if he can continue to move forward, we should have a lot of fun with him."

Almost Famous looked to be a serious contender on the Road to the Kentucky Derby

entering 2014.

As a two-year-old, the son of Unbridled's Song broke his maiden in his debut

start, finished fourth in the Street Sense and won an allowance race -- all at

Churchill Downs. He then was shipped to Florida for the winter and made his

three-year-old debut in the January 25 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park. Almost

Famous had the lead after six furlongs but faded late to fourth in his first

graded stakes test.

Almost Famous followed his Holy Bull effort with consecutive 11th place finishes

in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream and the Spiral at Turfway

Park.

"We had a bit of a rough start to the year with him," Byrne said. "Things didn't

quite work out the way we would've hoped. The horse was always doing okay, but

just not great, not perfect. Once we got back from Florida, after the Spiral

Stakes he actually wrenched an ankle. It was nothing to really worry about; we

got an x-ray and everything was okay. We just needed to give him a little time.

"We got back here to Churchill and my plan was to run him in the Derby Trial

after our Triple Crown hopes went awry. But I could tell something still wasn't

quite right with him so we waited. It was nothing major; he just wasn't quite

ready yet.

"He really likes this racetrack. Calvin worked him here a couple of times and he

seemed ready to go. We were looking for a race and I felt that I finally had the

way I wanted to have him. So we looked at the Matt Winn and we wanted to find a

race for him before then so this seemed like the perfect spot."

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