Falls City results in a Frivolous upset
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G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s Frivolous grabbed the lead at the head of the stretch and turned back late challenges by 4-5 favorite Don't Tell Sophia, Molly Morgan and Flashy American to spring a 19-1 upset in the 99th running of the Grade 2, $222,600 City Handicap, the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature at Churchill Downs. Frivolous, trained by Humphrey's daughter Vicki Oliver, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:51 1/5 on the fast track under jockey Jon Court, who turned 54 last Sunday. In doing so, the four-year-old homebred collected her first stakes win and a $133,872 first prize that pushed her career earnings to $333,498 from a record of 3-3-3 in 17 starts. Frivolous, an Empire Maker filly out of the Belong to Me mare Sixty Rocketts bred by Humphrey, raced in the clear just behind pacesetter Teen Pauline, who led the field of eight fillies and mares through ordinary fractions of :25, :49 and 1:13 2/5 before folding on the final turn. Frivolous shot to the front at the top of the stretch and opened a length advantage on a fast-closing Don't Tell Sophia, who trailed the field by as many as nine lengths. Frivolous never relented in posting a half-length decision on the wire, turning back challenges by Don't Tell Sophia to her outside and Molly Morgan, who closed along the inside rail to finish a neck back of the runner-up in third.
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"At the head of the stretch, she wanted to go," Court said. "I called on her
to put a little cushion between me and the field. I knew Don't Tell Sophia would
come flying at the end so I wanted to get out there where I was in a comfortable
spot and keep my lane and hopefully fend her off, which she proved to do."
Frivolous, a Kentucky-bred, paid $40.80 to win. She opened 2014 with an
allowance win at Keeneland last April but had dropped six straight starts in
advance of the Falls City, most recently finishing fifth in the grassy Dowager
at Keeneland on October 19. The dark bay miss finished third behind Don't Tell
Sophia and Molly Morgan in the September 6 Locust Grove at Churchill Downs two
starts previously.
A trouble-free trip was the key to success for Frivolous, according to her
trainer.
"She's always been a spectacular filly, she really has," Oliver said. "She
never really had the kind of trip we really wanted (in the past); she likes to
be on the outside and Jon (Court) rode her perfect. She's a free-striding filly.
She got it today."
For Oliver, it was her first stakes win at Churchill Downs and the third
graded stakes win of her training career that began in 1999. Previously, she won
the Grade 3 Gardenia Handicap at Ellis Park with Direct Line in 2010 and this
year's Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks with Personal Diary.
The Falls City -- a reference to the Ohio River falls or rapids that drop
some 30 feet just west of downtown Louisville, Kentucky -- is one of the four
original stakes races that were created by Churchill Downs founder Col. M. Lewis
Clark for the inaugural meet in 1875. The race has been run on Thanksgiving Day
since 1978.
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