SPRINT

Aikenite – Although he’s never won an upper echelon stakes race, the son of Yes It’s True seems to be a factor in many of them for trainer Todd Pletcher.

“He’s been a wonderful horse to have in the barn, a very generous horse,” Pletcher said of the battle-tested 4yo colt who has made 22 career starts. “He’s had some big wins for us; he’s very reliable.”

Aikenite closed to miss by a nose against Hoofit in the Phoenix at Keeneland in his last start, but among his two victories this season was a score in the Churchill Downs Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day in a field of 12.

“He just jogged a mile this morning,” Pletcher said. “He was full of himself coming off the track, feeling great. We’re hoping for an extremely hot pace and hope that he gives his general closing kick.”


Amazombie – Trainer Bill Spawr watched his Ancient Title Stakes winner travel 1 1/4m over the Churchill Downs main track Wednesday morning and said, “He went nice and easy, very even.”

It was Spawr’s first chance to watch as the 5yo gelded son of Northern Afleet took his first lap around the track. Both the runner and the trainer arrived Tuesday from California.

“I like his chances in the race,” Spawr said. “He’s really good right now and it just might set up for a late closer and that’s him. Mike said he even lost ground in the Ancient Title because he was going so fast. Mike said if he had been behind horses he would have run over them.”

Amazombie gives Spawr his seventh starter in the Breeders’ Cup, three previously in the Sprint. His best finish came with Bordonaro (fourth) in the 2006 Sprint.
 
On being stabled in the barn of all-time Breeders’ Cup winner D. Wayne Lukas, who has a Sprint contender of his own in 2010 runner-up Hamazing Destiny, Spawr said, “I feel privileged. I hope some of his stuff rubs off on me.”

 
Apriority/Big Drama – Defending Sprint champion Big Drama hasn’t started since he won the Whippleton Stakes at Calder easily on Sept. 4. Trainer David Fawkes would have preferred otherwise.

“I really wanted to run him in the Vosburgh and that was the race he was pointed for all along, but then he got that fever,” he said. “So I had to just train him up to this race.”

It wasn’t only illness that disrupted the schedule. Hurricane Irene hit upstate New York hard and the barn at Saratoga was flooded twice. Then inclement weather back at the Florida base intervened, and when the forecast stayed ugly, Fawkes had to improvise. He put both of his Breeders’ Cup contenders on a plane for Kentucky so they could get in their final workouts.

“I’ve seen that happen with horses before and I’ve been around long enough to know it will probably happen again with horses,” Fawkes said of the many disruptions in the plans.

Big Drama jogged 1 m and galloped 1m on Wednesday morning and Apriority jogged the same distance and galloped for 1 1/2m.
 

Euroears – The 7yo son of Langfuhr galloped 1m under exercise rider Dana Barnes Wednesday morning and will do the same Thursday, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert reported.


Force Freeze – The Sprint contender left the barn around 9:10 Wednesday morning and jogged 1m under exercise rider Marcos Orneos. Trainer Peter Walder held the leadshank to walk Force Freeze to and from the track.

“Things have just totally turned around since I got this horse, and it’s nice,” the 43-year-old Walder said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

The native of Montreal, Quebec, is well known for his success with runners in the claiming ranks, particularly at Gulfstream Park and Monmouth Park, but this 6yo Forest Camp gelding is his first big-time contender. Owner Saeed Naser Al Romaithi placed the horse in his care at the recommendation of Walder’s veterinarian after Force Freeze ran ninth in the Dubai Golden Shaheen this March.

“The owner has Arabians, and the owner’s stable manager wanted somebody at Monmouth to train the horse,” Walder said. “He asked the Arabian trainer, the Arabian trainer called my vet, and my vet said ‘There’s only one person at Monmouth I would recommend.’ They wanted him to have a little personal attention, and they called me out of the blue. I thought it was a joke when they called, you know, ‘We’ve got this horse just ran in the Dubai World Cup Sprint…’ When the horse came off the plane I said, ‘I guess this is for real,’ and here we are six months later.”  

Force Freeze is scheduled to jog 1m and gallop 1 1/4m around 9:15 a.m. Thursday.


Hamazing Destiny – There was a bit of warning coming from trainer D. Wayne Lukas Wednesday morning when queried about his contender for the Sprint.

“He’s sharp and he loves the racetrack,” said Lukas, who has won 18 Breeders’ Cup races.
 

Jackson Bend – The 4yo son of Hear No Evil schooled in the gate before galloping once around the Churchill track under exercise rider Carlos Correa Wednesday morning.

Winless in 12 starts since completing a sweep of the Florida Stallion Series in the In Reality at Calder on Sept. 17, 2009, Jackson Bend captured the 7f James Marvin Stakes at Saratoga going away on July 22. He came right back to win the 7f Forego at Saratoga and finish a solid second behind Uncle Mo in the 1m Kelso Handicap at Belmont.

No one is more pleased with the resurgence of the diminutive Florida-bred colt than his trainer Nick Zito.

“He’s second choice for a million and a half dollars, and if he can pull that off and win that, he deserves to be (Sprint) champion,” the Hall of Fame trainer said.

“Looking back three months ago, before he went to the gate in the James Marvin (Stakes), and you said to me, ‘before this race, I guarantee you’ll be second choice and have a chance for the Eclipse Award in the Sprint,’ I’d have said, ‘Where do I sign.’ ”

Regular rider Corey Nakatani has the mount.