Honor Thy Father Heads Horses Eligible For Ellis Park Juvenile
Ellis Park’s showcase Aug. 6 racing program is shaping up to be a dandy, based on nominations for the $100,000, Grade 3 Groupie Doll Stakes and the reinstated $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile.
Nominations closed Saturday and were released Wednesday, with the mile Groupie Doll for fillies and mares attracting 24 nominations and the Ellis Park Juvenile getting 25. While making a horse eligible for a stakes comes with no obligation to actually enter the race, the Groupie Doll promises a very competitive cast, based on trainers who have said they are targeting Ellis’ marquee race.
Likely contenders for the Groupie Doll include Ahh Chocolate (winner of Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Falls City last fall), Brooklynsway (winner of Keeneland’s Grade 3 Doubledogdare this spring and Indiana Grand’s recent Mari Hulman George), Fioretti (second by a half-length in last year’s Groupie Doll at 20-1 before winning Keeneland’s Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America at 17-1), Iowa Distaff winner Innovative Idea, Grade 2 Fleur de Lis third-place finisher Engaginglee and Grade 3 Chicago Handicap runner-up Kathballu.
The Groupie Doll, first run in 1982, has had various names over the years but was best known as the Gardenia. The stakes was renamed last year to honor Groupie Doll, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner and Eclipse champion trained by Kentucky-based co-owner and breeder Buff Bradley. Groupie Doll herself ran twice in the stakes, winning as a 3-year-old and being upset when coming off a long layoff during her second championship year. Bradley plans to run in the Groupie Doll with Mandy Pope’s Churchill Downs allowance winner Crown D’ Oro making her stakes debut.
Spelling Again, who captured Gulfstream Park’s Grade 2 Princess Rooney to earn an automatic bid to the Breeders’ Cup, is nominated but most likely heading to Saratoga for the Grade 1 Ballerina, said trainer Brad Cox.
“As the heart of the breeding industry, Kentucky generally has a strong population of fillies and mares for whom the graded status can be more important than the purse,†said Ellis Park racing secretary Dan Bork. “We expect the Groupie Doll to be a very solid race between horses who are proven in graded-stakes company and up-and-comers. The unique configuration of a mile around 1 1/2 turns makes it a good fit for both sprinters and horses who might use it as a launching pad to races such as Keeneland’s Grade 1 Spinster.â€
The Ellis Park Juvenile was brought back after being dropped several years ago because of a shortage of entries. The seven-furlong stakes’ nominees include the Kenny McPeek-trained Honor Thy Father, the ultra-impressive 9 3/4-length winner of an off-the-turf mile maiden race July 8 at Ellis; a pair of good-looking winners from leading trainer Steve Asmussen’s barn in Lookin At Lee and Prados Way; the Jinks Fires-trained easy winner Sir Douglas and snappy off-the-turf winner Cardinal Sin for trainer Mike Maker.
Seven fillies were nominated to the Juvenile, including the Churchill Downs’ Racing Club’s Dial Me, who won a maiden race last Saturday at Ellis.
“There’s been a request for a 2-year-old stakes over the past few years, and we’re happy to have it back,†Bork said. “With a lack of 2-year-old dirt stakes in the summer in the Midwest, the Ellis Park Juvenile is well-positioned to send horses on to important 2-year-old races at Churchill Downs and Keeneland, and quite possibly the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.â€
Over the years, the Ellis Park Juvenile has produced horses such as multiple graded-stakes winner Judge T C, champion Boston Harbor and millionaire Grade I winner Request for Parole.
The complete list of nominations and the horses’ past performances for both stakes can be found at this Equibase link http://bit.ly/2aKLAyO
