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Motor City, On Fire Baby to aim for Churchill juvenile highlights Motor City, last-to-first winner of Sunday's Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes, returned to the track early Monday morning for a jog. "He's good this morning and the next step most likely is the (Grade 2) Kentucky Jockey Club (Stakes)," trainer Ian Wilkes said referring to the race on November 26. What made Sunday's victory all the more sweet for Wilkes was the fact that Motor City's sire is Street Sense, winner of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in 2007. "That was Street Sense's first graded stakes winner," said Wilkes, who rode the Street Sense express along with trainer Carl Nafzger, with whom he shares Barn 26. The victory was the second in the Iroquois for Wilkes, who won the race in 2008 with Capt. Candyman Can. "It is hard to compare horses, but this horse can rate and Capt. Candyman Can couldn't," Wilkes said. "This bodes well for two turns." Trainer Al Stall Jr., who owns Iroquois runner-up Seven Lively Sins in partnership with Stewart Madison and Justin Querbes III, said the colt would head to Louisiana for the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Jackpot to be run November 19 at Delta Downs. "Hopefully, this will get him in with the graded stakes earnings (of $21,967 from the Iroquois)," Stall said. "That's a hard race to get in to as there are only nine spots available." "That was one for the good guys," Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said to Gary Hartlage as Lukas passed the viewing stand just past the six-furlong pole. It was one of many congratulations Hartlage received Monday after On Fire Baby's three-quarters of a length victory in the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes on Sunday's opening-day card of the 21-day Fall Meet at Churchill Downs. "Right place at the right time," Hartlage said. "I'd like to enter her today for the Breeders' Cup like they did in the old days when they ran the Derby Trial on the Tuesday before the (Kentucky) Derby." Instead of the Breeders' Cup, the next stop for On Fire Baby likely will be the Grade 2, $150,000 Golden Rod Stakes to be run November 26. On Fire Baby is a half-sister to High Heels, who ran third in the 2006 Golden Rod. High Heels' three-year-old season included a win in Oaklawn Park's Grade 2 Fantasy Stajes at Oaklawn Park and ran third to eventual Grade 1 Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks. The Golden Rod is not in the cards for And Why Not, who rallied from far back to get second in Sunday's race. "She's a May 20 foal and she has had four races as a two-year-old, so she is going to be turned out," trainer Michael Matz said. "Hopefully, we can come back with her in the spring."
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