Animal Spirits gets up in eventful Bourbon

The form of that maiden was upheld when Fantastic Song came back to finish

third in the Grade 3 Pilgrim last Sunday. Stall didn't hesitate to run Animal

Spirits in the Bourbon, especially after Grade 2 With Anticipation winner State

of Play had to skip the race.

"The race changed a little bit when the Team Valor horse that was supposed to

run here (State of Play) got sick," Stall said. "When a race loses like a 4-5

shot...

"There was a maiden race earlier in the card that had a lot of entries. We

just wanted to run our horse because he was doing so well. I didn't want to take

a chance getting excluded from a maiden race, so we (decided to enter in) this

race. Obviously, it was a spill-marred race, but our horse ran a very good race

on the outside."

With Robby Albarado back aboard, Animal Spirits raced near the tail of the

field early, well off the pace set by Here Comes Frazier through fractions of

:23 4/5, :49 and 1:14 on the firm turf. When the near-disaster occurred in the

stretch, several in the field were hampered, and the whole pack swerved out.

Coalport rallied to the lead, but Animal Spirits was gaining momentum on the

outside. Playing the role of hunter rather than hunted this time, Animal Spirits

got up by a half-length to finish 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 1/5 and paid $18.60,

$9.40 and $5.20 as the 8-1 fourth choice.

"He was way back," Albarado said. "He broke a bit tardy, got squeezed back,

was behind a bunch of trouble in the first turn. He was in trouble at Saratoga;

he took the worst of it that day. It's unfortunate he didn't win (his debut),

but he still ran a winning race.

"I caught it (Here Comes Frazier's spill)," Albarado said. "At the time, I

was about to run up to him. Animal Spirits, it didn't seem to bother him any.

He's so mature. He seems like an older horse out there. He came home real nice."

Coalport crossed the wire 1 1/2 lengths in front of the ex-Italian Lucky

Chappy, who closed well for third in his American debut. Splendiferous reported

home another half-length back in fourth, followed by Chalybeate Springs, Curfew

Tower, Gold Megillah, Downtown Driggs, Burn the Mortgage, 2-1 favorite Monastic

and Smart Ellis. Personal Interest was scratched.

Stall indicated that Animal Spirits would be considered for the

Juvenile Turf at Churchill Downs, but wouldn't commit just yet.

"I don't know," Stall said. "I haven't dealt with (co-owner) Seth (Klarman)

that much. I've enjoyed it so far. We'll talk about it and see what he wants.

Obviously, the big question is whether you go over to Louisville and run in that

race, but we'll see."

Ken McPeek, the trainer of Here Comes Frazier, was hoping for the best.

"He's a really good horse," McPeek said of the colt who romped in his debut

and was dispatched as the 7-2 second choice here. "We're just hopeful he's OK.

It looked like he was walking fine. He's never been hit (with a crop) in his

life. He's so fast (that) we've never even had to lay a stick on him. I think he

was shocked. Julien (Leparoux) rolled the stick over and hit him right-handed,

and the horse was just shocked. That scared him over the rail.

"He's so talented. I just hope he's OK.

"It's a tough game, it's hard. I told somebody the other day, 'Racing horses

is like boxing. Somebody gets to hit you in the head about nine times and then

you get to him them back.' Today I got hit pretty hard."