Owner/breeder Carl Pollard, who won the 2000 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) with champion Caressing, has a chance Sept. 6 to secure a Breeders' Cup berth with Mercante, her last foal. Caressing died in 2021 at age 23.
Mercante, a dual graded stakes winner for Pollard and trainer Brian Knippenberg, is among the favorites at Kentucky Downs in the Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational Stakes (G2T)—a 1 1/2-mile grass contest that is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In. The victor earns a paid, automatic berth into the $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) over the same distance at Del Mar.
The Kentucky Turf Cup is the lone domestic Breeders' Cup Challenge race this weekend, joined by two others from Asia Sept. 7: the Korea Cup (G3) and the Korea Sprint (G3), both races at Seoul Racecourse in South Korea. The 1 1/8-mile Korea Cup is a Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) qualifier, while the six-furlong Korea Sprint, as its name would suggest, is a "Win and You're In" for the Breeders' Cup Sprint at the same distance.
To date, other final grass preps have overshadowed the Kentucky Turf Cup in importance leading into the Breeders' Cup Turf, a race won by European-trained runners in five of the last six years and in nine of the past 10 runnings. Last year's Kentucky Turf Cup winner—Grand Sonata, who is back for this year's renewal— ran 11th in the Breeders' Cup Turf last fall at Del Mar. He bids to become just the third back-to-back winner of the Kentucky Turf Cup.
But money talks, and due to the profitability of slot-like historical horse racing gaming, Kentucky Downs is flush with it. Each year, the track distributes millions of purse money to other Kentucky tracks, in addition to bolstering the local product by raising purses.
Six stakes at Kentucky Downs Saturday are worth at least $2 million, counting Kentucky-bred incentives. Those bred elsewhere race for $1 million less per stakes race—though that accounts for only the French-bred Divin Propos among the 11 Kentucky Turf Cup entrants.
The Kentucky Turf Cup and the Mint Millions Invitational (G3T) are the richest of Saturday's stakes six pack, worth up to $2.5 million apiece. Both races had a potential purse of $2 million last year.
Now Pollard's Mercante takes his crack at a massive payday, competing in the longest race of his career. All five of his wins from 14 starts have come between a mile and 1 1/8 miles. Specifically in graded stakes action, he has been victorious in the 1 1/8-mile Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes (G3) on synthetic at Turfway Park and the 1 1/16-mile Arlington Stakes (G3T) on the Churchill Downs grass.
Most recently, the 5-year-old Gun Runner gelding finished fourth in the Kentucky Downs Preview Mint Millions Turf Mile Stakes at Ellis Park Aug. 2 when returning from more than a two-month layoff.
Knippenberg said it was a difficult decision whether to race Mercante in the Turf Cup or the Mint Millions at a mile.
"The distance in both those races is a limiting factor for him. I don't want to go a mile in 1:31 again like we did at Ellis," he said of the course-record time of 1:31.76 in the Kentucky Downs Preview Turf Mile. "We've been working with him to relax off the pace, like in the Arlington, when he relaxed off sort of a slow pace. We've been giving him long, slow gallops to get him off the bridle a little bit. I just picked the spot I thought gave us the best chance. There are some other horses that like to get to the lead in long races like that. If he can flank a horse and relax, I think he'll be OK."
For the sixth straight race, Joseph Ramos will be aboard Mercante, a half brother to 2017 Travers Stakes (G1) winner West Coast.
Few appear quicker than Mercante early, except perhaps Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' and Harry Colburn's Corruption, who has shown speed to race 1-2 early in all three of his turf races at 1 3/8 miles or longer. A winner of five of nine starts, he aims for his first stakes victory in the Kentucky Turf Cup after previously running second in the March 29 Pan American Stakes (G3T) and fourth in the June 8 Manhattan Stakes (G1T) when tried in the stakes ranks.
The Mark Casse trainee was a three-length winner of a July 30 allowance optional claiming race at Saratoga Race Course before being given the month of August off following a bout of heat exhaustion shortly after the race. Hosed with water and treated with ice in a group effort from nearby horsemen and veterinarians, he walked back to his barn at Saratoga and was on the way to recovery.
Jose Ortiz, who has ridden Corruption to two victories from as many rides, has the return riding assignment on the Medaglia d'Oro 4-year-old gelding.
Mild temperatures in the low 70s are forecast for Saturday in Southern Kentucky, following potentially heavy overnight rain that could linger with light showers into the morning. A turf course that was lightning-quick after an August drought could have more give in the ground than earlier in the Kentucky Downs meet.
Besides Mercante and Grand Sonata, other graded stakes winners in the Kentucky Cup include Tawny Port, Utah Beach, and Fort Washington—who defeated Grand Sonata by a half-length last out in capturing the 1 1/4-mile Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) Aug. 9 at Colonial Downs.
"It's such a hard race to win," said Todd Quast, general manager and racing manager for Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, owner and breeder of Grand Sonata. "With the mile and a half, anything can happen, and usually does. But he is such a cool horse. He tries every time. He and (jockey) Tyler (Gaffalione) have a great chemistry, especially at Kentucky Downs. Very excited about it. It was a great race last year, and he's really probably in better form."
