Louisville

TRACK BANDIT PREVIEWS

An evenly matched field of 11 turf marathoners will go 1 1/2 miles over the

Churchill Downs turf on Saturday in the $150,000 Louisville H. (G3). We're going to

take a shot with SAVE BIG MONEY (Storm Cat) from the barn of Neil Howard. The

useful chestnut has shown improvement since transferring to the lawn, and we

were impressed with his fourth-place showing in the Fair Grounds H. (G3) earlier

in this campaign, missing the place by just more than a half-length. The five-year-old

Kentucky-bred was extremely sharp in his lone attempt over this oval and could

improve in his second try off the short break. Shaun Bridgmohan will be in the

irons.

Grade 1 hero BRASS HAT (Prized) was a solid third in the Elkhorn S. (G2) at

this distance most recently and is one of the classiest runners in the field for

William "Buff" Bradley. The gelded seven-year-old has never won on the green from four

tries, but a repeat of his last should give him a fighting chance under his new

rider, Calvin Borel. The Kentucky-bred smoked a bullet five-eighths drill to

signal his readiness for this test.

PICKAPOCKET (Mecke) looms a big threat to ring up the toteboard in

here for Bill Mott. The bay colt, who exits a nice allowance score at Keeneland

most recently, should inherit the early lead in here and could be very dangerous

late if allowed to dictate soft splits up front beneath Elvis Trujillo. The

Florida-bred is a question mark at this 12-furlong trip, and we're not sure if he is classy

enough to top this bunch, but he could hang around for a while at big odds and

complete some healthy gimmicks.

American Derby (G2) winner LATTICE (Arch) has finished second and third in

his last pair since transferring to the Albert Stall barn, and the four-year-old

will make his first try past 10 furlongs in here. The colt is obviously

talented and could conceivably excel at this trip, but we'd rather see him

sustain this distance against graded foes before siding with him. Robby Albarado

will break from the rail aboard the Claiborne homebred.

SILVERFOOT (With Approval) won three consecutive runnings of this race from

2004-2006, when it was staged at 1 3/8 miles, and has compiled a sparkling

5-4-0-0 mark over the Churchill lawn. The eight-year-old gray, who was sidelined

for all of 2007, showed improvement in the Elkhorn most recently in his fourth

start back. If the Dallas Stewart

charge receives a good trip, he can surely be a

top three threat under the guidance of Jamie Theriot.

LORD CARMEN (Ordway) crushed restricted stakes foes over soft turf at

Arlington Park most recently

and has two wins at this distance, so we can't omit the seven-year-old at a

likely big price in this difficult race. The bay Canadian-bred doesn't have much

tactical speed, which could hurt him in here, but he's fired previously over this

course and could run big in his third start off the bench for Frank Kirby. The

steadily improving FIREROCK BASE (Indian Charlie) had a nice prep for this when

second in a solid allowance at one mile, but had the misfortune of drawing

the widest post in here. We would be quite surprised if the four-year-old

captured this tilt, but if he handles the added ground and receives a heady ride

from Julien Leparoux, he could finish in the top four.

We respect conditioner Tom Amoss and like his claim of SPIDER POWER (Ire)

(Royal Applause [GB]) last out, but a victory here would be a shock to us. TRANSDUCTION

GOLD (Formal Gold) has lost his last pair by a combined 54 1/2 lengths and is

hard to recommend in this race.

BIRDBIRDISTHEWORD (Pure Prize) has won just one time since capturing the 2006

Delta Jackpot S. (G3), and he hasn't finished better than sixth in four turf

tries since, so we'll look elsewhere. BIGGERBADDERBETTER (Sahm) scored a solid

100 BRIS Speed number last out, but did so against first-level allowance runners

and can't be sided with from this corner.