Golden Ticket works for possible Homecoming Classic start

The field for Churchill Downs'

first running of the $175,000 Homecoming Classic on September 28 has

reigning Breeders' Cup Classic and Stephen Foster Handicap winner

Fort Larned at the top, with the rest of the line up still taking shape.

Trainer Charlie LoPresti has taken Successful Dan out of consideration for the

race but

said that Windswept will be in the starting gate. LoPresti explained he would probably point Successful Dan, a

seven-year-old half-brother to reigning Horse of the Year Wise Dan, toward the

Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette Stakes over Keeneland's Polytrack on October 28, the closing day of the Lexington,

Kentucky, track's fall meet.

However, LoPresti sees the Churchill Downs race as a grand

opportunity for Windswept, a five-year-old son of Arch who is coming off an

impressive 9 1/2-length optional claiming victory at Saratoga. Windswept's only previous

stakes experience was a fourth-place run in the 2011 Indiana Derby at Hoosier Park.

Windswept has a 2-0-1 record in four starts since he moved

to LoPresti's barn, and the Saratoga win was preceded by an allowance score at

Churchill Downs, where he has won two-of-three career starts.

"He's awful good right now," LoPresti said via telephone

from his training base at Keeneland. "I don't know if he's good enough to beat

Fort Larned, but we're going to find out."

One horse listed as possible for the nine-furlong Homecoming Classic is Golden Ticket, dead-heat winner of

last year's Travers and runner-up to Fort Larned in the Foster.

The Ken McPeek trainee breezed a half-mile in :49 4/5 over Churchill's sloppy track Saturday morning. The work by the

four-year-old son

of Speightstown ranked 14th among the day's 28 moves at the distance.

McPeek's other possible option for Golden Ticket is the

Grade 1, $250,000 Awesome Again at Santa Anita on the same day as the Homecoming

Classic.

"He's not definite for the Homecoming Classic," McPeek stated. "We're still looking at the California race, but we're leaning this way."

McPeek indicated the Breeders' Cup Classic on

November 2 at Santa Anita remains the long-term goal for Golden Ticket.

Others considered likely or possible for the Homecoming Classic include 2011 Stephen Foster Handicap winner Pool

Play, multiple Grade 2 hero Prayer for Relief and Grade 2-placed stakes scorer Worldly. Entries for the Homecoming Classic will be drawn Sunday.

McPeek had a busy morning aside

from Golden Ticket's move as several

of his stable stars worked over the sloppy going at Churchill.

Flashy

American, winner of the track's Locust Grove and Saratoga's Alada Stakes in

her last two starts, breezed a bullet half-mile in :48. The move by the Flashy

Bull four-year-old filly was the fastest of 28 moves at the distance. McPeek

said his claimer-turned-stakes star could compete next in the Grade 1, $250,000 Zenyatta

on September 28 at Santa Anita, a "Win and You're In" race for the Breeders' Cup

Distaff.

Also working for McPeek was Grade 1 diva Pure Fun, who logged five furlongs in 1:01

3/5 in preparation for

a comeback start in the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks at Indiana Downs on October 5. That race

will be the first start for Pure Fun since a sixth-place effort in the Kentucky Oaks.

Rosalind, third in the Pocahontas earlier this month under the Twin Spires,

clocked four

furlongs in :48 4/5 for McPeek. The two-year-old daughter of Broken Vow is being pointed

toward the Grade 1, $400,000 Alcibiades at Keeneland on October 4.

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