The 45-year-old English trainer James Owen never has started a horse in America, never even has traveled here himself, and if Owen has been on the outside looking into American racing, the same can be said of his first American runner, Wimbledon Hawkeye.
Lured Stateside by a monster purse, the Owen-trained Wimbledon Hawkeye unceremoniously drew post 12 for the Nashville Derby Invitational, featured race among five stakes Saturday at Kentucky Downs.
A poor draw, but not insurmountable. Carded for 1 5/16 miles, one loop around the Kentucky Downs course, the Nashville Derby horses break and go quickly into a turn, a configuration that should – and to some extent does – favor inside draws. Since 2000, 28 horses have broken from post 12 in races at this distance, and two have won. Horses breaking from posts 9-11 have gone a respectable 18 for 186. If Wimbledon Hawkeye leaves alertly and establishes even a decent position, he’ll be fine.
The Nashville Derby can accommodate a dozen entrants and drew 14. The race offers a total purse of $3.5 million, North America’s richest turf race outside the Breeders’ Cup Turf, and while Kentucky-breds qualify for $1.5 million in supplementary money, and Wimbledon Hawkeye was bred in England, he still runs for $2 million. That’s a giant pot, especially by European standards, and graded stakes-level European 3-year-olds this time of year must face older horses.
Wimbledon Hawkeye faces one of the leading American turf 3-year-olds, Test Score, and four horses who participated in Triple Crown races. Sandman, winner of the Arkansas Derby, and most recently fifth in the Jim Dandy, makes his turf debut. So does Burnham Square, most recently fifth in the Haskell Stakes but winner this past April of the Grade 1 Blue Grass.
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Hill Road, fifth in the Belmont and a distant third in the Jim Dandy, returns to turf for the first time since his owner, Amo Racing, exported him from Ireland last fall. Louisiana Derby-winner Tiztastic, 10th in the Kentucky Derby when making his most recent dirt start, exits two modest turf tries in New York. Final Gambit, fourth in the Derby, performed better than Tiztastic in those Saratoga grass stakes while no match for Test Score.
The others in the field’s main body include likely leader Tomasello and a horse he’s faced several times, King of Ashes, who, adding blinkers, also could show speed. Lightly raced Simulate is light on speed figures but can’t be discounted, nor can last-out maiden winner Noble Confessor. Maximum Promise has no logical claim on contention.
Hill Road scored a sharp debut win in Ireland before finishing a flat fifth in the Group 1 National Stakes. He raced creditably on dirt this year, winning the Peter Pan, and trainer Chad Brown has worked the colt twice on Saratoga turf, most recently on Aug. 17, when Hill Road, breezing on the inside, appeared to go considerably better than the decent 3-year-old grass runner Early Adopter.
Tiztastic won two Kentucky Downs races in a 10-day span last year but has not looked competitive in his two turf tries since the Derby and recently has been outworked by Clever Again. Final Gambit, a synthetic-surface standout earlier this year, loomed and flattened in the Belmont Derby and the Saratoga Derby.
Sandman, seventh in the Derby and third in the Preakness, spun his wheels during a one-race blinkers experiment in the Jim Dandy, and Sandman’s move to turf comes after an apparent plateau on dirt. His trainer, Mark Casse, gave his charge a pair of Saratoga grass works, and jockey Jose Ortiz told Casse after the first of them that his mount had responded immediately when asked for just a little run. That’s noteworthy because on dirt Sandman has been a pace-dependent grinder.
“He needs pace help. The one thing we always kind of thought was he just doesn’t quicken on dirt,” Casse said.
Sandman’s grass drills on video didn’t look like anything special. His trainer described them as “good.”
Ian Wilkes, though, said moving Burnham Square to turf has long been an option. A troubled sixth in the Derby and a solid second in the Matt Winn, Burnham Square reverted to older bad habits in the Haskell, falling out the back door into the first turn, racing last of eight.
“He’s always been a little bit quirky running into the dirt,” Wilkes said. “Originally, we were going to go to the Travers, but I couldn’t justify that.”
Burnham Square is by Liam’s Map, who gets grass horses, and his Wilkes-trained dam, Linda, was all turf during her racing career. The gelding never has even worked on grass, but Wilkes thinks he’ll like it.
“What he’s done on dirt is a total outlier to the family. I think his career from here will be on the turf,” Wilkes said.
Noble Confessor tried four stakes – including a better-than-looks sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf – as a maiden, finally winning for the first time after leading throughout a 1 3/16-mile contest July 24 at Saratoga. Noble Confessor probably prefers a target and can outrun his odds.
A hard bump into the first turn cost Simulate important early position three weeks ago in the Secretariat, and he closed well for second behind perfect-trip winner Giocoso.
Test Score ran just as well finishing third, beaten a half-length in the Saratoga Derby Invitational, as he had winning the Belmont Derby over similar competition.
“He was game, very tenacious, but he’s always tenacious in his races,” trainer Graham Motion said.
Test Score makes his fifth start of the year, and connections considered passing the Aug. 2 Saratoga Derby to await this start, but Motion sees no reason the colt won’t hold his form. As for a first try at Kentucky Downs – who knows.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” Motion said.
Owen, in comments to Kentucky Downs publicity, seems to think he knows. He expressed confidence that his European horse will handle this European-style course, and Wimbledon Hawkeye follows one year after Bellum Justum shipped from England on a similar racing pattern to win the 2024 Nashville Derby.
Frankie Dettori rode Bellum Justum and has the mount on Wimbledon Hawkeye, who, like his predecessor, exits a narrow defeat in the Gordon Stakes at Goodwood. There, Wimbledon Hawkeye lost by a nose to the William Haggas-trained Merchant, whose connections have designs on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Two races ago, Wimbledon Hawkeye finished second behind El Cordobes, the 4-year-old who came to America and won the Grade 1 Sword Dancer.
Winner of the Group 2 Royal Lodge at age 2, Wimbledon Hawkeye has enough positional pace to clear several horses drawn inside him and get into a stalking spot before too much of the first turn has passed. And if that’s how things work out, James Owen’s first American starter might be a winning one.
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