A handful of stakes winners fit the conditions of the nominal feature on the eight-race twilight Thursday card at Churchill Downs, which has a first post of 5 p.m. The richest race of the day is a 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional-claiming race for 3-year-olds and up who have never won three races other than, or who have never won four races.
Salute the Stars won the Pegasus Stakes last year at Monmouth for Brad Cox – defeating the talented Kingsbarns – before finishing off the board in a pair of graded stakes races. He may now be rounding back into form in his third outing of 2024 off a long layoff. He returned in June at Churchill Downs and showed speed before finishing fourth; he again led early before finishing second in a similar allowance in July at Saratoga.
Oscar Eclipse won the Sir Shackleton Stakes earlier this year at Gulfstream Park and most recently was third in an Ellis Park allowance. He has turf breeding and turf form, and has been more proof of the adage that turf horses often perform well on the Churchill Downs dirt, with a maiden win and a stakes third-place finish here last year.
Bendoog, Group 1-placed in Dubai last year, is getting class relief as he drops out of a pair of graded stakes efforts. He was second by half-length in the Grade 2 Suburban after leading in the stretch, and then sixth in the Grade 2 Charles Town Classic on the bull-ring track that may not have suited the imposing sort.
Thursday’s card also includes a $120,000 maiden special weight that has drawn an overflow field of 2-year-olds. I Got Game has already gotten plenty of experience against some of the early talents of this crop and is a threat to finally win his maiden for Tom Amoss with a cleaner trip.
I Got Game, from the first crop of champion juvenile Game Winner, was second to Politicallycorrect, subsequent winner of the Bashford Manor Stakes, on debut. He was fourth behind Owen Almighty in his next outing after being steadied early and brushing with foes while splitting horses. Owen Almighty went on to win the Ellis Park Juvenile and finish second in the Grade 3 Iroquois. In his third race, I Got Game got a dreadful start and finished fifth after also being bumped multiple times.