Rise Up Captures Tough Allowance

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Preemptive Strike Wins 2yo Race 

 HENDERSON, Ky. (Aug. 5, 2016) — Rise Up led all the way to take Ellis Park’s $42,000 seventh race by 3 1/4 lengths Friday in near track-record time under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.
It was a money-won allowance race with a $50,000 claiming option. But it attracted what might have been the best group of older male horses in one race at Ellis Park in years, with five of the seven starters being stakes-winners.
“This was really a small graded race more than anything,” said Hernandez, who rode Rise Up for trainer Tom Amoss. “But our horse figured. He’s a millionaire. He’s a nice horse, and he’s fast. He had the 1 hole, and like Tom said, he needs the lead. We went ahead and put him on the lead and let him be fast.”
Amoss watched the race while onset  as a analyst on the New York Racing Association’s Saratoga Live broadcast.
“There’s no secret to the kind of horse Rise Up is,” Amoss said by phone during a commercial break. “He’s a horse whose heart gets big if he can make the lead out of the gate. We were able to do that today, and he ran a really good race. He ran them off their feet.
“I love this guy. I’m proud of him. It was his first win of the year, but he has to have things his way. And that makes him tough. It really does.”
Rise Up got away with an uncontested first quarter-mile in 23.63 seconds, then picked up the pace with a 22.42 second-quarter. He had plenty left to down-gear to a final eighth-mile in 12.79 seconds to prevail comfortably while finishing the mile in 1:34.77. That was 36/100th of a second off Looking Cool’s 2014 track record. Rise Up paid $8 to win as the co-second choice.
“The track is quicker. But he ran fast as well,” Hernandez said. “Tom said he has a couple of issues where sometimes he gets a little nervous in the gate and that’s what gets him beat. But he stood in there like a perfect gentleman. And when he left there like he did, I just let him go on and be fast… Then you force whoever is behind you to get to chasing you a little bit and kind of rip the heart out of them more than anything.”
Rise Up, a son of Lockport Harbor owned by Paul Van Doren, now is 9-3-5 in 26 starts, earning $1,074,925.
Ulanbator, winner of last year’s Schaefer Memorial at Indiana Grand, put on the closest heat but still was a couple of lengths back early on under Chris Landeros. 
“I wish there was more speed, for somebody to go get him,” Landeros said of Rise Up. “I didn’t want to take anything away from my horse, because I was already in a position. But I also didn’t want to use it too early. Because I wanted him to finish today. He’s run against some tougher fields, but my main thing was to get his confidence and to let him run late. I wish there had been more pace. But regardless, he ran hard and fought to the end.”
Raagheb and Joe Rocco Jr. rallied to finish another three-quarters of a length back in third, followed by Coin Broker, favored Cougar Ridge, Jessica’s Star and Far Right, last year’s late-running winner of Oaklawn Park’s Smarty Jones Stakes and Grade 3 Southwest and the Arkansas Derby runner-up to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.
2-Year-Old Watch: Colebrook Strikes Again
Preemptive Strike, ridden by Joe Rocco, led all the way in his second start to capture Friday’s 5 1/2-furlong turf maiden race by a half-length over the promising Dig Charlie Dig in the field of eleven 2-year-olds.
Preemptive Strike is out the same mare as Surgical Strike, winner of the Grade 3 Arlington Classic on grass and Turfway Park’s John Battaglia on Polytrack. Both horses are trained by Ben Colebrook, who will run another one of their relatives, the 2-year-old debut-winning filly Caroline Test, in Saturday’s Ellis Park Juvenile against males.
In his first start, Preemptive Strike, a son of Florida Derby and Blue Grass winner Harlan’s Holiday, stopped badly to lose by 33 lengths on dirt at Churchill Downs.
“I couldn’t believe how bad he ran, because I really love the horse,” Colebrook said. “… He’s always trained like a really nice horse. The family says grass, and Harlan’s Holidays can go either way. But I think we’ll take him to Kentucky Downs and run him in the juvenile stakes down there.”
The victory was particularly gratifying because Preemptive Strike had shipped to Toronto to run in a six-furlong Polytrack race while Colebrook had a filly running in a stakes at Woodbine. 
“There was a hiccup: The Fed-Ex (registration) papers didn’t get there, and they scratched him. So we had to take him all the way back,” the Keeneland-based Colebrook said, adding with a self-deprecating laugh, “I was on thin ice. I needed to win this one for the owner, because that was a big screw up.”
Owner-breeders Beverly Anderson and Ed Seltzer have 16 horses with Colebrook, making them the trainer’s biggest client.
Dig Charlie Dig encountered trouble on the turn before closing well. Afterward, Louisville-based trainer Greg Foley was philosophical. Foley said he didn’t know that Dig Charlie Dig, making his first start, would run well on grass. But he wanted to find out before Kentucky Downs’ short meet next month offers the highest purses in America.
“Maybe they did us a favor.  At the three-eighth pole, he really couldn’t get through there. We had some tough luck, but he ran great,” Foley said, adding of Dig Charlie Dig’s likely next start in a Kentucky Downs maiden race, “Now we run for $140,000. I feel pretty good about it. They kind of have you experimenting now for races over there. If you got one you think can run, you’re silly not to test them a little” on grass.
Racing continues Saturday at 12:50 p.m. Central for Ellis Park’s showcase card featuring the Grade 3 Groupie Doll and the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile. As always, admission and parking are free.
For more information, contact Jennie Rees, Ellis Park publicity, at tracksidejennie@gmail.com.

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