Return Of 2-Year-Old Stakes, $38,000 Maiden Races Strengthen Program At Ellis

Ellis Park: Launching pad to the stars

Return of 2-Year-Old Stakes, $38,000 Maiden Races Strengthen Program

HENDERSON, Ky. — In past years, trainer John Hancock likely would have sold Midnight Chica and Whole Scoop, his 2-year-old fillies that impressively won their racing debuts at Keeneland and Indiana Grand.

But with Ellis Park raising its purses and reinstating the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile for its 2016 summer meet, Hancock is hanging on to his promising babies. That’s in contrast to last year, when he gave Cocked and Loaded his early training at Ellis Park before the colt won his first start at Keeneland and subsequently was sold to Chicago-based Larry Rivelli, who promptly won Belmont Park’s Tremont and later Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Iroquois.

“I want to run at home. My barn at Ellis Park is three miles from my driveway…. The 2-year-old stakes coming back means a lot to us,” said the 55-year-old Hancock, a third-generation horseman who has been an Ellis fixture since first putting bandages on a horse at age 6. “Usu- ally I sell my 2-year-olds every year, and the good ones I have this year that have won and everybody is trying to buy, I haven’t sold them yet. I’ve got them right at Ellis Park in the barn. I’m going to hold pat. I’m going to run in the Churchill Downs Debutante and back in the Ellis Park Juvenile, and I’m going to back Ellis Park with their 2-year-old program. I’ve got a lot of 2- year-olds, probably five or six I haven’t started yet that are pretty nice.

“I think it’s going to be one of the best meets we’ve had at Ellis Park in a long time. I can’t recall maiden special-weight races at Ellis Park ever running for $38,000. I was looking at some win pictures from the 1980s, and the pot was $4,300.”

Using Ellis maiden races to develop 2-year-olds has gone from being one of the sport’s best- kept secrets to becoming darn right fashionable. Far from being a black mark for a well-bred youngster to get beat at the Pea Patch, it’s considered valuable preparation for bigger things down the road. Hancock notes that Keen Ice finished fourth in his debut at Ellis and went on to capture Saratoga’s 2015 Travers Stakes over Triple Crown winner American Pharoah.

Dale Romans, who trained Keen Ice, also saw his future two-time Grade I winner Brody’s Cause get drilled at Ellis last summer. He says he won’t take a 2-year-old maiden to Saratoga.

“I just hope more people don’t start staying behind and it gets tougher to break a maiden at Ellis,” Romans said. “I mean, Brody did get beat at Ellis. A lot of horses get beat in 2-year-old races and go on to be top horses. It’s the time of year for 2-year-olds to get started, seems the most productive. And it’s a good safe racetrack to get started on.”

Ellis Park’s 2-year-old program over the years helped launch future Breeders’ Cup winners Cat Thief (Classic), Boston Harbor (Juvenile) and Caressing (Juvenile Fillies), older male champi- on Lawyer Ron and Grade 1 winners On Fire Baby, Noble’s Promise, Request for Parole, Turallure, Pure Fun, Pure Clan, Java’s War, Outofthebox and Richter Scale, along with the multiple graded stakes-winners Judge TC, Hurricane Bertie, Mi Cielo and Mountain Cat.

Trainer Tom Amoss’ 2016 Kentucky Derby runner Mo Tom started out last summer at Ellis. So did Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies third-place finisher Dothraki Queen, with trainer Kenny McPeek starting her out on the turf in order to get a longer race – the same technique he used with 2015 Toyota Blue Grass winner Java’s War.

“Look at the 2-year-olds who have started at Ellis Park in the last three, five years and look how many good horses came out of there,” Hancock said. “… It’s going to be a very, very tough meet for 2-year-olds. Right now, Kentucky is situated for the 2-year-olds where you don’t have to leave the state. The money is here, the stakes are here and the horses are here.”