General Quarters heads Kentucky Cup probables

General Quarters, taking a spin over the Churchill turf in June, won’t race in a tongue tie anymore (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Two-time Grade 1 winner GENERAL QUARTERS (Sky Mesa) tops the list of probables for Saturday’s $200,000 Kentucky Cup (G2), Turfway Park announced Monday. Trainer Tom McCarthy charmed the racing world when he sent out General Quarters to capture the 2009 Blue Grass S. (G1). Saturday he will hope for similar Kentucky all-weather magic in the 1 1/16-mile Kentucky Cup, a race the 77-year-old former Louisville school principal picked out as a prep for the Breeders’ Cup. “The Kentucky Cup fits in nicely time-wise with the Breeders’ Cup,” McCarthy said. “It’s debatable which (Breeders’) Cup race I might look at. I want to see how he does on Saturday.” General Quarters put up a fight to earn his second Grade 1 score, the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs in 2010, but this year, after a sharp second-place finish in a June 10 dirt sprint at Churchill, he disappointed with a pair of seventh-place finishes, first in the Firecracker H. (G2) and then in Arlington’s Washington Park H. (G3) over the Polytrack September 3. But McCarthy feels General Quarters was not feeling his best in those last two efforts.

“I found a little something that was bothering him,” he said. “He was
struggling with his tongue tie and actually cut open his tongue last time. He
had been getting a little hard to saddle in races lately. It turns out that he
didn’t want the tongue tie, and I didn’t listen. I don’t train him with one, so
I wouldn’t have noticed anything in the mornings. The whole thing was so simple,
it was stupid.” 

For the fourth straight start, Jamie Theriot will be aboard General Quarters,
who will travel from Churchill Downs to Turfway Park by van Saturday morning.  

Also among those likely to run is seven-year-old STRIKE IMPACT (Smart
Strike), third in the Firecracker on the turf at Churchill Downs two races back
and second, beaten a neck, in the West Virginia House of Delegates Speaker’s Cup
S. in his last start.

The expected entry of Strike Impact puts popular Louisville
Courier-Journal turf writer Jennie Rees in an odd — but happy — position.
Strike Impact is trained and co-owned by Rees’s husband, Pat Dupuy. As a result,
Rees will be at Turfway Park Saturday to report on the four supporting stakes
races but not the day’s featured event.

“They feel it would be a conflict of interest,” Rees said of her bosses. “The
issue never came up until the Firecracker H. on the Fourth of July. It may never
happen again, but I hope it does!”

“He’s real good right now,” said Dupuy, who claimed Strike Impact for $25,000
on July 25, 2009, out of a win at Arlington Park. The bay gelding is the only
horse in Dupuy’s stable, and he has won seven of 20 starts since the claim.

“This horse has some quirks,” Dupuy said. “In another stable he’d probably
fall between the cracks. He’d be just another horse. I put in a lot of time with
him. He gets a lot of attention.”

Though Strike Impact’s last six races have been on grass, he is no stranger
to all-weather surfaces. From 31 such starts, he has racked up 11 victories. 

“It’s a good time to take a shot,” Dupuy said. “With so much racing going on,
horses are shipping everywhere. I was hoping the race would come up a little
light, but for $200,000 you know some good ones are going to show up.”

Calvin Borel will have the riding assignment aboard Strike Impact, who will
van from Churchill Downs to Turfway Park on Thursday afternoon.

Upperline is the one to beat in the Distaff (WEG/Michael Burns Photography) As of Monday, the other Kentucky Cup probables are Firecracker runner-up and recent Bernard Baruch H. (G2) third BARYSHNIKOV (Empire Maker) for trainer Mike Maker; multiple Grade 3 hero DEMARCATION (Gulch), Paul McGee; FUTURE PROSPECT (Freud), D.H. Skaggs; Windy Sands H. winner SHEDIAK (Fr) (Selkirk), Ben Cecil; and Grade 2 veteran WORKIN FOR HOPS (City Zip), Mike Stidham. Decisions regarding several nominees remain up in the air. Expected so far for the $100,000 Kentucky Cup Distaff (G3), also at 1 1/16 miles, are multiple Grade 3 winner AILALEA (Pulpit) from the Todd Pletcher barn; Iowa Distaff runner-up BELLA MEDAGLIA (Medaglia d’Oro), Bret Calhoun; HIGH QUALITY (Elusive Quality), McGee; multiple stakes winner KISS MINE (Mineshaft), David Vance; Arlington Matron (G3) runner-up LA GRAN BAILADORA (Afleet Alex), Maker; Gardenia S. (G3) runner-up SECRET FILE (Smart Strike), Charles Lopresti; and Grade 3 winner UPPERLINE (Maria’s Mon), Stidham.

The top three finishers will earn seasons to one of three WinStar stallions
— Super Saver, Colonel John and Hold Me Back — in addition to purse money.

The Kentucky Cup Sprint (G3), for three-year-olds going six furlongs, has to
date sparked interest from Grade 2-placed CAL NATION (Distorted Humor), Pletcher;
CHILLED (Yes It’s True), McGee; stakes-placed FREE ENTRY (Tale of the Cat), Ron
Moquett; Grade 3 winner LOU BRISSIE  (Limehouse) and stakes-placed
MATTHEWSBURG (Ghostzapper), both trained by Maker; stakes-placed PHILIPPE
(Mineshaft) and WILL’S WILDCAT (Eurosilver), Jimmy Baker; SONG OF HUMOR (Songandaprayer),
Milton Gaede; and UNSADDLED GLORY (Belong to Me), Ernie Retamoza.

Completing the five-race Kentucky Cup stakes are the 1 1/16-mile Juvenile and
the one-mile Juvenile Fillies, each worth $100,000.