Ellis Juvenile Contender Ebben Has Owner On Cloud Nine

 Ebben is one of the first yearlings purchased by Sam Aguiar. The Louisville attorney was part of the Pocket Aces syndicate and decided to start his own stable with Churchill Downs-based trainer Steve Margolis. Ebben was third at 14-1 odds June 28 at Churchill, a race won by a really nice horse in Hollywood Star, second in the recent Saratoga Special. Ebben then won a maiden race at Indiana Grand to earn his shot at the seven-furlong Juvenile.

“If we’ve got a horse who can be competitive out there and just not finish in the bottom, then we know we’ve got a 2-year-old that has some potential,” Aguiar said by phone. “If we were to finish fourth or better tomorrow, even if we don’t win, you’ll probably think that we won. The first race when we finished third, I had to eventually tell my buddies that we needed to get away so the people could get in the winner’s circle. Because we’d thought we’d just won the Kentucky Derby, and we finished third in a maiden special weight.”

Aguiar, whom you’ll see referred to in his ads by his first name Craig, gave friends in his law office small pieces of the horse.

“It’s probably the worst thing that could happen: We’re 1 for 1 right now with a horse,” he said with a laugh. “It would be like if I went in front of a jury after six months of practicing law, didn’t know what I was doing and thought I was better than I was, and got this huge verdict. It’s the same thing here, like a false sense of security the way you think you know what you’re doing, when really it was probably nothing more than a lot of luck.

“Who knows how he’ll do tomorrow? But the fact that as a first-time starter he went out and had the lead until the last sixteenth against that $600,000 Dale Romans horse, then came right back and went eight-wide into the stretch (at Indiana), thought he didn’t have a chance and ran right past everybody — it’s pretty cool.”

Ebben, who will be ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., is 10-1 in a field of 12 that includes 8-5 favorite Ten City, the Bashford Manor winner.

“I think you’ve got what may be the best 2-year-old in the country in Ten City,” Aguiar said. “Then you’ve got the other Romans horse, Dak Attack, and then it’s wide-open underneath that. I think you’re going to get disgustingly good prices on the rest of the field. This Ten City horse looks like he might be something special. So I like it. I like that we get to run a horse against that caliber and see where our horse stands. The fact is, we bought our horse for $25,000. The fact that he’s even getting to start (Sunday) is freaking awesome. It is so cool. If he would hit the board, we’d be on Cloud Nine.”

 Ebben got his name because Aguiar’s young son Owen couldn’t correctly pronounce older brother Evan’s name.

“Owen would say, ‘I want to see Ebben,’” the lawyer said. “I thought it was the cutest thing. I got to thinking that Owen was going to learn to pronounce his v’s one day and wasn’t going to call his brother Ebben forever. I figured if I had a horse named Ebben, it would be that good, adorable reminder.”

Marquee Cal Gal wins turf debut in Saturday allowance feature

Trainer Phil Sims and owner-breeder David Jacobs have long wanted to get Marquee Cal Gal in a turf race. That opportunity happened in Saturday’s $43,000 open allowance race, in which the 6-year-old mare took the lead with an eighth-mile to go to beat favored Justa Lady by a length. Marquee Cal Gal covered 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:01.17 under Jack Gilligan, the last sixteenth-mile in an excellent 5.94 seconds. She paid $15.80 as the fourth choice in the field of seven. Finishing another 1 1/4 lengths back in third was the 4-year-old Marquee Miss, the winner’s full sister whom Jacobs sold as a yearling for $19,000.

“This is her first time on the turf, and she goes in 1:01,” Sims said. “This was a good field, a good group. We’ve been trying to get on the turf. She worked on the turf back at Keeneland in the spring. Worked really well. I entered her in the Giant’s Causeway, and she got on the also-eligible list and didn’t draw in because she didn’t have any turf earnings. Now she has some turf earnings. This experiment worked.”

The victory continued a big meet for the 20-year-old Gilligan, who rides favored Ten City in the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile. Gilligan has won 11 races this meet, tying for fifth in the standings.

Marquee Cal Gal won for the 11th time in 27 starts, her earnings now $229,350. Her prior 11 races were all over synthetic surfaces at Presque Isle and Turfway Park, including losing the $50,000 Holiday Inaugural by a neck to Marquee Miss. Sixteen races back, Sims ran Marquee Cal Gal in a $15,000 claiming race at Turfway Park. She won by nine lengths, wasn’t claimed and was eligible for starter-allowance races, where she’s feasted on the competition.

Both Marquee Cal Gal and Marquee Miss are out of Jacobs’ Marquetry mare Marquee Delivery and were sired by Cowboy Cal.

“The older already had training money invested in her and the other one was a yearling,” said Jacobs, who lives in Stamping Grounds, Ky., outside of Georgetown. “I had no idea what she was going to be. I said, ‘I don’t want two with the same bloodlines, so I’ll sell one.’”

Yes, he has had reasons to regret that decision. But Marquee Cal Gal has turned out fine as well.

“This is the first opportunity that we’ve had to run her on the turf,” Jacobs said. “Looks to me like she’s suited for it.”