Trainer Mike Maker and jockey Victor Lebron visited the winner’s circle for a
fourth time on Saturday’s Kentucky Cup card at Turfway Park after F. Thomas
Conway and Matt Conway’s MATTHEWSBURG (Ghostzapper) proved a decisive winner of
the $100,000
Kentucky Cup Sprint (G3) for three-year-olds going six furlongs on the
Polytrack. Racing very wide down the backside from an outside draw, the colt
made significant advance around the far turn to get within a length of the lead.
Continuing his wide rally, Matthewsburg struck the front in upper stretch and
rolled to a 2 1/4-length victory in a time of 1:10 1/5. He paid $20.60, $9.60
and $5.40 as the 9-1 sixth choice on the board.
A two-horse duel in the opening quarter provided the quick pace Matthewsburg
needed. Song of Humor (Songandaprayer) and Will’s Wildcat (Eurosilver) were
heads apart through a quarter in :21 4/5, but the latter pulled ahead as the
half was reached in :45. Song of Humor had begun to retreat by that point as
Phillippe (Mineshaft) and Matthewsburg ranged up on the outside.
At the top of the stretch, the race boiled down to Phillippe and Matthewsburg,
but the latter proved too tough to fend off. Phillippe had a fight to hold off a
determined Will’s Wildcat along the inside to land second money. Ultimately he
did so, by a head, with Song of Humor 4 1/2 lengths behind in fourth.
The order of finish was rounded out by Ronin Dax (Tapit), 2-1 favorite Cal
Nation (Distorted Humor), Chilled (Yes It’s True), Lou Brissie (Limehouse), Big
Albert (Albert the Great), Unsaddled Glory and Free Entry (Tale of the Cat).
Unplaced in his first three outings, including a $75,000 maiden claimer,
Matthewsburg was a 6 1/4-length maiden special weight victor at Turfway on March
26. Unplaced three times again in first-level allowance company following that
score, he finally pulled out a win at that level in a 5 1/2-furlong dash on dirt
at Indiana Downs. He preceded this victory with a distant second to Poseidon’s
Warrior (Speightstown) in the East Hanover S. at Penn National on July 30. His
record now stands at 10-3-1-0, $123,609.
“I’m glad to see him duplicate a performance,” Maker said. “I thought his
race at Penn National was sneaky good. He got beat a ways, but that horse that
beat him (Poseidon’s Warrior) is a very good horse. I don’t know what’s next for
him. I wasn’t looking past today.”
A $95,000 two-year-old in training purchase at the 2010 Adena Springs sale,
Matthewsburg was bred by that entity in Kentucky. His dam, the stakes-placed
Romantic Comedy (A.P. Indy), is a full sister to the multiple stakes winner Indy
Wind and has also foaled the unraced juvenile filly Zerbinetta (Awesome Again).
Matthewsburg’s third dam was Greentree’s 1978 champion older mare Late
Bloomer (Stage Door Johnny), who produced Grade 1 winner Ends Well (Lyphard) and
Grade 2 hero Fred Astaire (Nijinsky II). Late Bloomer and her full siblings,
Grade 2 winner Johnny Appleseed and multiple Grade 3 hero Late Act, were all
produced by Broodmare of the Year Dunce Cap II (Tom Fool).