Emerald produces gold: Profound Legacy romps again in first start for Ian Wilkes; Ellis Park Debutante next

It’s not every day that you see a 2-year-old who started out at Washington state’s Emerald Downs running at Ellis Park. In fact, who knows if it’s ever happened?

But Profound Legacy looked like a filly of whom we’ll hear more, winning an Ellis Park allowance race by 4 1/2 lengths over 30-1 pacesetter Princess Athena in Saturday’s $43,000 fifth race. That followed on the heels of Profound Legacy winning her June 3 debut by 7 3/4 lengths, after which she came on trainer Ian Wilkes’ radar. Asked if he just happens to be in the habit of watching Emerald Downs baby races, Wilkes laughed and said by phone from Saratoga, “Of course. I watch them all the time. Yeah, right.

“No, someone called me and told me that a filly that just ran was very impressive. I looked at her, called up to see if she was for sale, and I took a trip out there to look at her. Went out to Emerald Downs, first time there, and I liked what I saw so we bought her. The guys who owned her stayed in for 25 percent.”

Wilkes’ clients Turf Stable and Six Column Stables are the new owners, with Mark Dedomenico and Mike Waters retaining part interest. Among the new owners on hand were Rush Fullerton and Scott and Jennifer McReynolds, all of Louisville and who are in Rusty Jones’ Turf Stable partnership.

“I just liked her presence, the way she travels,” Wilkes said. “I like that she does everything easy. I watched her gallop and liked what I saw on the track. I was actually very impressed. They said she was small, but when you walk up beside her, she’s bigger than what you think.”

“It was impressive today,” Wilkes said. “I loved her turn of foot. We’re still getting to know her, but the move she made coming around the turn to put Steve Asmussen’s filly (Kristizar) away was impressive. You don’t put Steve’s horses away too easy. They are hard to get by.”

Here’s something else notable about Profound Legacy: She’s a full sister to breeder Brereton Jones’ 2012 Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can, who was trained by former Ellis Park mainstay and Hopkinsville product Larry Jones. Both horses are by Brereton Jones’ stallion Proud Citizen and out of his El Prado mare El Fasto.

Profound Legacy settled into fourth under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., making a sweeping move coming out of the turn to seize the lead at the top of the stretch. She finished 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:19.34, paying $3.80 to win as the odds-on favorite. Princess Athena, off at 30-1, finished second with My Wynter Rose third by a nose over second-choice Kristizar, who had been battling for the lead before giving way.

“She looks like she’s got a bright future,” Hernandez said. “I worked her the other morning, and she worked like she kind of ran today: on and off, on and off. But today when I called on her turning for home, she went on by those fillies really easily and she looks like the sky is the limit. The whole way down the lane, she was widening away from those fillies at the same time she was waiting on them.”

Wilkes said Profound Legacy will return to his Churchill Downs division and come back to Ellis Park for the $75,000 Ellis Park Debutante at seven-eighths of a mile on Aug. 19.

“We wanted to run her at Churchill Downs, but we didn’t quite get her in time,” he said. “I just didn’t want to push it because it was a little different climate that she was coming from. I said, ‘Let’s just back off and get her ready for this race today, then we’ve got the seven-furlong race if we’re good enough.’

“We toyed with the idea of running at Saratoga, but we decided let’s stay at Ellis and see what we have. We want to develop her. She was a little green today. Even though she ran away from them, she still was making mistakes. The water gets deeper as we go. This was only her second start. And sitting here at Churchill, they have the Breeders’ Cup at Churchill. They have a ‘Win and You’re In’ (automatic qualifier) race at Churchill in September. So why not give her the opportunity there?”

Grade 1-placed Princess Warrior wins on return to turf

This is how tough these Ellis Park allowance races are coming up: Princess Warrior, second in last year’s Grade 1 Darley Alcibiades at Keeneland and who was third in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks this spring, won an entry-level allowance race Saturday, pushing the pace before reeling in the leaders late for a half-length victory over Upstage. Princess Warrior, with Corey Lanerie up, covered 1 1/16 miles over the firm Wright Implement turf course in 1:42.91, the last sixteenth in 5.57 seconds. She paid $8.20 to win while beating older fillies and mares as the third choice in the field of seven.

Princess Warrior in winning her debut at Churchill Downs last fall beat Mia Mischief, who this spring won the Grade 2 Eight Belles. She’d made only one prior start on turf, finishing a good fourth in Gulfstream’s Grade 3 Herecomesthebride before returning to dirt for the Gulfstream Park Oaks. But after three disappointing starts on the main track, she was back on grass and did not disappoint.

“We’re supposed to do this,” Greg Geier, one of trainer Kenny McPeek’s Churchill Downs-based assistant said. “She ran very well on grass before at Gulfstream, fourth in a stakes. So we got her back on it.”

Said Lanerie: “She’s run some really good races. Going back on her form, she’d run on the turf and it was one of better (handicapping) numbers. So I thought going back to turf would be a good thing. Greg and them had her ready. All I did was give her a good path.”

Apprentice jockey Edgar Morales won two races (second on Alteration for John Hancock and seventh on Trace for Ben Colebrook) to take a 14-11 lead in the jockey standings over James Graham. Alteration’s victory gave Hancock his fifth win of the meet (out of 18 starters), pulling into a tie with 2015 meet-leader Brad Cox for the training lead.

Good Lord! There’s lots of back class in Sunday stakes

One of eight older horses in Sunday’s $50,000 Good Lord Stakes, Control Stake is the epitome of “back class.” The 6-year-old gelding has won four stakes. It’s just that the last one came 2 1/2 years ago.

But trainer Greg Foley and jockey Corey Lanerie say the high-level allowance/optional claiming races in which Control Stake has been second (three times) or third in his last four starts at Churchill Downs and the Fair Grounds might as well have been stakes races.

“He’s just a classy old horse,” said Foley, who claimed Control Stake for $40,000. “I thought he was really solid and had watched him run a couple of times. You know, we haven’t won a race with him since we’ve had him, but he’s had some of the toughest beats you’ve ever seen. He’s just a hard-knocker, a good ol’ horse to be around. He’s just been in with some tough son of a guns his last four, five starts. He’s run too good to get beat the last few races, but to some really nice horses.”

Said Lanerie: “Almost every race he’s run in, it seemed like it could have been a stakes race, horses running almost 100 Beyers (speed figures). Every time he goes out, he gives everything he’s got, poor thing, and he just can’t seem to get it done. But he’s a great horse to ride. He’s a good horse; he’s just been unlucky.”

Control Stake isn’t the only multiple stakes-winner in the field for the 6 1/2-furlong Good Lord, named after a three-time winner of the race. Majestic Affair (the 2-1 favorite) and Concord Fast and Line Judge each have won three stakes. Majestic Affair, trained by Brad Cox this year after previously being in Chad Brown’s barn, also is multiple graded-stakes placed.

“It’s a solid little race, a lot of old class horses,” Foley said. “I don’t think we’re in even tougher than we have been.”

Line Judge won two stakes as a 2-year-old. He was claimed by trainer Tom Amoss and owner Maggi Moss for $50,000 at Keeneland and promptly won a second-level allowance at Indiana Grand. Moss had claimed Line Judge last December for $30,000 before losing the colt for $40,000.

Smart Spree and Woodland Walk are both nine-time winners, with Shut the Box and He’s Money rounding out the field.

Concord Fast needs new rider for Good Lord

Even though Concord Fast has won three stakes races, trainer Chris Hartman knows the 5-year-old gelding — born in West Virginia and having mostly raced in New Mexico — comes into Sunday’s $50,000 Good Lord Stakes at Ellis Park as something of a question.

One question Hartman didn’t anticipate having to answer, however, was who will ride the horse. The trainer, who is off to a terrific start this meet with four wins, liked what he saw of Martin Chuan, who only a couple of weeks ago came to the U.S. after being the leading rider in Peru. Hartman put on Chuan on his second winner and was riding him on a lot of his horses, including Concord Fast in the 6 1/2-furlong stakes. But Chuan became homesick and without notice returned to Peru after Good Lord entries were made.

“That’s just crazy,” Hartman said.

Concord Fast is the pick by Ellis announcer and program handicapper Jimmy McNerney.

Except for two races in Iowa, Concord Fast made every start in New Mexico — winning three stakes, one this year and a pair in 2016 — before being sent to the Kentucky-based Hartman, promptly winning an off-the-turf allowance race at Churchill Downs.

“He’s got credentials,” Hartman said. “He’s a nifty little horse. He likes his job and he’s good at it. I didn’t know exactly where the horse would fit in the big scheme of things, but he ran a pretty big race (in his last start). It was off the turf, and you have to take that into account. But he won it in hand. we’re using this as a measuring stick: Ellis Park, a little $50,000 I think is a good measuring stick.

“I think the horse has a pretty good chance. I don’t think he’s in over his head. There are some nice horses in the race, don’t get me wrong. Any time you run in a money race in Kentucky, it’s competitive. But I think he has a good chance.

“He’s a multiple stakes winner, but this is a step up, let’s face it. Farmington (New Mexico) and Albuquerque is not quite the same as Kentucky.”

Hartman won last year’s Good Lord, then known as the Don Bernhardt Memorial, with Wilbo, a nine-time winner who has earned $573,506. “He’s going to have to do a few things to be Wilbo’s stature,” Hartman said. “It remains to be see. We’ll see how he handles this race and goes from there. I did want to try him on grass, try to engage the horse but we got rained off.”

Hartman said he’d never had a horse before for owner Teed Off Stables — whose silks are black with a white golf ball, red tee and black “Teed Off Stables” — sent him a few horses that included Concord Fast. But while he didn’t know the Teed Off principles, the Arizona-born Hartman was a highly successful trainer in New Mexico who kept upgrading his stock around the Southwest before relocating to Kentucky, with Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park his winter base.

“He’s a really cool horse to be around,” Hartman said of Concord Fast. “He’s quite a character, a funny horse, a lot of quirks to him.”

Sunday also is Kentucky HBPA College Day, with full-time college students (college, university, junior, community, technical, vocational, trade eligible) able to sign up to win a $1,000 scholarship or laptop, with one of each given out after each race via drawing. Students must bring college I.D. card, letter of acceptance for incoming students or similar and must be present to win. Sign-up table will be in the grandstand tunnel on the north (closest to the paddock) end. The last race scholarship and laptop will be a separate drawing for a horse-industry (racetrack or backside) employee or child of a horse-industry employee.