Golden Tempo, 2-2 to start his career and a last-to-first winner of the Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 17, will face seven rivals Feb. 14 in the Risen Star Stakes.
The Grade 2, $500,000 Risen Star and the 11 races that precede it were drawn Saturday at Fair Grounds. Carded for 1 1/8 miles, the Risen Star marks the first 105-point qualifier in Churchill Downs’ Road to the Kentucky Derby. The first five finishers will collect 50, 25, 15, 10 and 5 points toward making the Derby field, capped at 20 runners.
Golden Tempo earned a mild 81 Beyer Speed Figure in the Lecomte, but made a stronger visual impression than the number, finishing full of run and galloping out well in his first route race and first start against other winners.
Trained by Cherie DeVaux, Golden Tempo, a Curlin colt, breaks from post 2 under Jose Ortiz on Saturday after posting his final Risen Star workout on Friday, a 48.80 half-mile drill in company with Double Entendre, who runs earlier on the Risen Star card in a maiden route.
While the DeVaux-trained Mesquite, runner up in the Lecomte, makes his next start in the Rebel at Oaklawn Park, the Lecomte third-, fourth-, and fifth-place finishers -- Carson Street, Chip Honcho, and Quality Mischief -- return for the Risen Star. Carson Street (post 3, Ben Curtis) held on best of the Lecomte pace factors, while Chip Honcho pulled a tough, wide trip from an outside draw last month. On Saturday, he breaks from post 5 under new jockey Luis Saez. Quality Mischief, marginally competitive in the Lecomte and the Chip Honcho’s Gun Runner in December, has a new rider, Florent Geroux.
Paladin, who drew post 4 and will be ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, could wind up the Risen Star favorite for trainer Chad Brown, who won this race in 2024 with Sierra Leone. Placed first via disqualification, Paladin in his second start captured the Dec. 6 Remsen at Aqueduct by two lengths.
Courting, a somewhat troubled fourth in the Remsen, also ships from Florida for the Risen Star, John Velazquez getting a return call by trainer Todd Pletcher.
Universe, second in the Kentucky Jockey Club but a flat seventh last out in the Smarty Jones at Oaklawn, will have Chris Elliott aboard breaking from post 1. Florent Geroux has the mount on Lecomte fifth-place finisher Quality Magic, who drew post 8. Colt Forty Seven, a longshot, drew post 6 for his stakes debut under James Graham.
The Risen Star immediately follows the Grade 2, $300,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, the same kind of points qualifier on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks. Bella Ballerina, a sister to Kentucky Oaks winner Pretty Mischievous, heads a field of eight while making her 3-year-old debut for Godolphin and trainer Brendan Walsh. A debut sprint winner at Keeneland, Bella Ballerina – another Gaffalione mount -- ended her two-start juvenile campaign with a solid victory in the Grade 2 Golden Rod 2 1/2 months ago at Churchill Downs.
Just Singing ships from Florida to make her first start since a rallying Golden Rod third. Luv Your Neighbor, a pace-compromised second last month at Fair Grounds in the Silverbulletday, has a new jockey, Luis Saez, for the Rachel Alexandra, while Silverbulletday fifth-place finisher Dancin in Old Town returns for the Rachel Alexandra still a maiden.
Majestical faces winners for the first time while making her third start, a good-looking maiden route win Dec. 27 punching her ticket to the Rachel Alexandra. Powered by Family, another Fair Grounds maiden route winner, captured a Jan. 10 race rained off turf but earned an 84 Beyer, considerably higher than Majestical’s 72. Agrippina, a last-start Oaklawn maiden route winner, and longshot Classic Glide, a Churchill starter-allowance winner last fall in her most recent out, complete the 1 1/16-mile Rachel Alexandra.
Accelerize, upset winner of the Louisiana Stakes last month, and Hit Show, prepping to defend his Dubai World Cup title, headline the seven-runner Mineshaft Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile Grade 3, $250,000 dirt route for older horses.
Kupuna returns to action in the Grade 3, $175,000 Fair Grounds after capturing the Colonel Bradley Stakes last month, the most recent local race in the older-horse turf route division. Brilliant Berti figures to vie for favoritism in his first start since a gold third last October in the Grade 1 Keeneland Turf Mile, while Montador, winner last out of the Woodchopper at Fair Grounds, steps up to meet older horses for the first time in his 4-year-old debut.
Medoro raced outside southern California for the first time last month and landed the Marie Krantz Memorial on the Fair Grounds grass course, but faces a stronger rival, the Brown-trained Oversubscribed, in the $100,000 Albert M. Stall Memorial.
The stakes action starts early on the card with a turf sprint, the $100,000 Colonel Power, which will have Usually Wrong as a solid favorite.
First post for the 12-race program is noon, earlier than standard, and the card includes five maiden-special-weight races for 3-year-olds. A 3-year-old dirt-route allowance listed in the condition book as a substitute race did not make it onto the card. The long-range weather forecast calls for a chance of showers with the temperature rising into the mid-60s.
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