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Fort Larned to face six in Homecoming Classic

The lone bright spot in a frustrating campaign for Fort Larned was a tour de force victory in the June 15 Stephen Foster (Wendy Wooley/EquiSport Photos) With a successful title defense of the November 2 Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita a priority, trainer Ian Wilkes has chosen Saturday's inaugural running of the $175,000 Homecoming Classic at Churchill Downs as the final Breeders' Cup prep for his star five-year-old Fort Larned. The 1 1/8-mile Homecoming Classic, the most lucrative stakes during Churchill's first-ever 12-day September meeting, shares a "Downs After Dark" program with the Grade 3, $100,000 Jefferson Cup, a one-mile grass test for three-year-olds. While avoiding a long ship into a proverbial lion's den for Saturday's Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, Fort Larned also gets to run on a track over which he's a proven commodity. The one bright spot in a season of disappointment occurred over the Churchill strip in mid-June, when the son of E Dubai led throughout in taking the Stephen Foster Handicap by a whopping 6 1/4 lengths. However, playing the role of favorite has been a fruitless venture for Fort Larned this term. After dumping jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. and running off in his season-opening appearance in the Gulfstream Park Handicap, Janis Whitham's homebred was not sufficiently recovered when a dull fifth in the Oaklawn Handicap next out. Last time, in his only start since the Foster, Fort Larned was run off his feet by the up-and-coming Cross Traffic in the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.

Also expected to receive support in the Homecoming Classic are Golden Ticket and Prayer for Relief. The former, the dead-heat winner of the 2012 Travers, earned his first stakes win since that triumph in the $98,000 Prairie Meadows Handicap over 1 1/4 miles on July 27. Previously, the Ken McPeek trainee had finished a distant but clear second to Fort Larned in the Stephen Foster.

Prayer for Relief, a dual Grade 2 winner in 2011, has rebounded from a winless 2012 campaign to become a multiple stakes winner this season. Runner-up in the Texas Mile and Lone Star Park Handicap to start the year, the Steve Asmussen trainee snapped a long losing skid with a 1 3/4-length score in the Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap over the likes of Taptowne and Silver Max. Last time, the five-year was a game winner by a head over the returning Worldly in the Governor's Cup at Remington Park.

The Homecoming Classic field is rounded out by the veteran Pool Play, the 2011 Stephen Foster winner who exits a third in the 1 1/2-mile Greenwood Cup at Parx; Windswept, an impressive 9 1/2-length winner against second-level allowance foes at Saratoga last time; and Agent Di Nozzo, who captured the $101,000 Golden Bear at Indiana Downs two back.

Owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey will try for yet another graded turf victory this year in the Jefferson Cup, where they'll be represented by Redwood Kitten and Gentleman's Kitten.

The more accomplished of the two, Redwood Kitten captured the James W. Murphy at Pimlico on Preakness Day, and most recently was third in a division of the Del Mar Derby. Gentleman's Kitten, a sub-par 10th in the Woodbine's $129,000 Charlie Barley in his only stakes attempt thus far, rebounded from that try with a photo-finish victory against older allowance rivals at Saratoga last time.

Other Jefferson Cup notables include General Election, twice unplaced since registering a 13-1 upset of the May 25 Arlington Classic, and Balino, a romping six-length winner of the $72,000 Naked Greed over a yielding Calder turf last month.

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