From the first Friday and Saturday afternoons in May through a wintry early evening on the last Friday in November, this has been quite the year at Churchill Downs for trainer Kenny McPeek and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who teamed up to win the Grade 2, $600,000 Clark Stakes with Rattle N Roll about six months after pulling a historic sweep of the Oaks and the Derby with Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan.
Rattle N Roll won a long stretch battle with 3-year-old Most Wanted to capture the Clark by three-quarters of a length, his first victory since the Blame Stakes in June 2023 at Churchill. Rattle N Roll finished fourth in the Lukas Classic in September 2023 at Churchill and didn’t race again until this year’s Lukas Classic, where he checked in third.
McPeek and the Lucky Seven Stable had Rattle N Roll entered in the Fayette Stakes at Keeneland in October but scratched the horse to try and run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. After shipping to Del Mar, Rattle N Roll failed to draw into the Classic, returning to Churchill in early November no worse for his trip west.
“He walked off the truck ready to go back to work,” said Greg Geier, McPeek’s key assistant.
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Geier has been based at Churchill and oversees McPeek’s string at Fair Grounds, from which Mystik Dan and Thorpedo Anna emerged to win the Derby and the Oaks. Geier was a longtime assistant to the late trainer Gene Cilio in Chicago and New Orleans before training on his own after Cilio’s death.
His stint as a head trainer sputtering, he found a home working for McPeek, who brought Geier into the post-race interview on Churchill’s in-house broadcast team.
“It’s been ultra special,” McPeek said of his Churchill accomplishments in 2024. “It’s a team of people like this guy right here, and none of it happens without people like this. A lot of the credit goes to Greg.”
Hernandez, too, has become deeply entwined with the McPeek Stable, riding all his top horses. He gave Rattle N Roll a textbook trip in the 1 1/8-mile Clark, deflecting credit to his mount.
“That’s a testament to the horse. He was able to give us that kind of trip where he took us there and finished off the job. He’s a special individual,” Hernandez said.
Rattle N Roll settled in fifth as Most Wanted ceded the lead to 68-1 shot Grand Aspen, who set a slow pace, going the first quarter in 24.11 and a half in 49.15. Most Wanted, pulling harder than ideal while facing older stakes horse for the first time, tracked the leader, forging to the front around the far turn just as Rattle N Roll gathered momentum.
Most Wanted led into Churchill’s long homestretch, responded when challenged past the three-sixteenths marker by Rattle N Roll, who continued relentlessly to forge to the front before the sixteenth pole.
Hit Show, the 3-2 favorite, trained, like Most Wanted, by Brad Cox, crossed the wire third, 3 1/4 lengths behind Most Wanted, but was disqualified to fifth for crossing in front of Uno Mas Bourbon and Crupi past the furlong grounds. Uno Mas Bourbon was elevated to third.
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Rattle N Roll ran 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:49.60 and paid $11.52 as the fourth choice. A 5-year-old horse, Rattle N Roll is by Connect out of Jazz Tune, by Johannesburg, and he won for the ninth time in 23 starts.
Mystik Dan has taken up residence at Fair Grounds, with his first start since the Triple Crown yet to be determined. Thorpedo Anna, a slam dunk to be champion 3-year-old filly and a contender for Horse of the Year honors, is on a winter holiday before joining Geier at Fair Grounds.
Rattle N Roll, McPeek said, could make his next start in the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park. That race comes early next year. It’s difficult imagining 2025 topping 2024 for McPeek and Hernandez.
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