The month-long sprawl of Kentucky Championship preliminaries comes to a close on Sunday (Sept. 12) at The Red Mile when the pacing sophomores contest in their final $40,000 rounds of the series.
Colts and geldings kick off the Sunday card with a match-up between Komodo Beach and Goldies Legacy, who have each won in all the series prelims thus far; Goldies Legacy with two wins and Komodo Beach with one. Komodo Beach gets a post advantage on his rival in the five-horse contest, starting from the rail with Todd McCarthy driving for trainer Brett Pelling. Yannick Gingras retains the call on Goldies Legacy, a Jeff Cullipher trainee, and will start from Post 4.
First-preliminary winner Blue Diamond Eyes returns to Lexington in the single dash for the sophomore pacing fillies. The Ron Burke pupil enters from a fourth-place finish in the $250,000 James Lynch Memorial, which she followed with a runner-up effort to Lynch champ Grace Hill in the $253,000 Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship. Gingras steers the speedy filly from Post 3 in a six-horse affair that includes So Irresistible, who will have Andrew McCarthy in the bike following a 1:55.3 victory in the third preliminary on Sept. 5.
Sunday’s card also features two $20,000 divisions of the Kentucky Commonwealth Series – one for the colts and geldings and one for the fillies. The Finals of the Kentucky Championship are slated for Sunday (Sept. 19) with the Kentucky Commonwealth finals on Monday (Sept. 20). First-race post time each race day is 1:00 p.m. (EDT).
(Red Mile)