Fair Grounds’ Santa Super Saturday program originally featured three
Making his first start since a 2 3/4-length triumph in the Grade 3 Bashford
Exfactor gave Shaun Bridgmohan his
“The horse did it all. Bernie had him good and he did
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“We started off with a good horse. That always helps,” Flint admitted.
After running second in his May 14 debut at Churchill
Downs, Exfactor came back the following month to break his maiden by 4 1/2
lengths and then won the Bashford Manor with a last-to-first rally.
“After he
won the Grade 3, we got together, decided to give him some time off, let
him grow up and develop,” Flint explained the layoff. “And I guess the
five months must have worked because I’ve never seen a gamer
two-year-old, head and head down the lane. He’s not an aggressive kind
of animal. But I’ll tell you what he is, he’s gamer than Dick Tracy. He didn’t give up an inch and that horse was a good horse
that pushed him. And my hat’s off to him because he ran every step of
the way with him.”
With this win under his girth, the son of Exchange Rate could be
headed to bigger and better things at Fair Grounds.
“Well I did spend
the 500 (dollars) and nominate him early (to the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and
Fair Grounds’ three-year-old graded stakes series),” Flint said. “Now the whole
thing is, if everything goes along, (he’ll) probably (run). And if he keeps on
moving forward, after all these 72 years, I might have a ticket to run in the
big stakes here.”
Chamberlain Bridge, the 2010 Grade 2 Breeders’ Cup Turf
Departing from his
“Well he broke very sharp for us
The Bonapaw
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“You know, we had a rough year with him, obviously, physically he’s been the
same horse as he was last year during his great campaign and this year he just
really mentally hasn’t seemed to be the same. He’s had a couple of excuses,”
trainer Bret Calhoun asserted. “The last two races were definitely throw out
races. Before that he didn’t really have any major excuses. He was kind of just
going through the motions but he’s trained very, very well and it looks like he
got back on track today. I hope that will give him some confidence to move
forward from here.”
Cherokee Queen, who landed the Grade 3 Suwannee River
Debuting
Under Shaun Bridgmohan,
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“She’s a real class act,” Margolis said.
“Clark had picked her out at Keeneland and asked if I had a
stall and I said, ‘Sure thing, yeah.’ So we brought her to Churchill, let her
gallop a little bit, gave her a work there, and brought her here, kind of
specifically to have this race, and the other series. Long term, she’s going to be a broodmare for him but we wanted to see if she
has any more run. She’s just a class act and she kind of knew her way around
there.
“It was great for Clark and Debbie Brewster to come, and we ran a maiden in a
race earlier,” the conditioner added. “This is our first win so it’s great to get off like this. Clark’s
a great owner and has a lot of passion for the game. I’m really excited
for them.”
Cherokee Queen’s record improved to 33-10-6-1, $568,312.
The stakes action at Fair Grounds on Saturday kicked off with the $72,000
Separating themselves from the rest of the field by more
“That other horse slipped through
The bay colt, trained by Greg Geier, had been unplaced in
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“He just loves it here,” Geier said of the Afleet Alex colt. “I had him
when he was a two-year-old at Hawthorne and I told Marcus Hersh, wait until he gets to the Fair Grounds and he turns three. He trains good
here and he just does everything good here. It’s amazing.”