LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Glory Run is a first-time starter entered in the $250,000 Kentucky Juvenile on Wednesday at Churchill Downs. But that’s not so far out of left field. Six of the eight 2-year-olds entered for the five-furlong tilt are maidens, with the only two winners being Skara Brae and Waggley, part of the usual Wesley Ward contingent of early-season maiden runners at his Keeneland base.
With the group fairly well matched, trainer John Ennis elected to take a shot with Glory Run, a Girvin filly, in order to split up juveniles with similar ownership. Glory Run races for the BC Stables of John Bellinger and Brian Coelho, in partnership with Bob Albritton, David Baggett, and Jay Graham. BC Stables owns Summer Dream, part of a big field of 12 in a maiden special weight on Wednesday, while BC and the partners have Smoke Trail in a Tuesday maiden race.
“I could have went there, but there was a full field in the [Wednesday] maiden, and the same owners have a horse in the maiden and the Juvenile,” Ennis said. “They were coming into town, they like action. So she’s talented, she’s fast, and she’s been training really good, so we’re going to give it a shot.”
Glory Run has five breezes under her belt at Ennis’s base at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, the majority of those at three furlongs. She does have three works from the gate, including, most recently, a bullet on April 17. That experience should help her get a crucial good break from the rail draw here.
“She’s a talented filly,” Ennis said. “She’s been breezing good.”
Next door to Glory Run is a major pace threat in Ward’s Skara Brae, from the first crop of the talented turf sprinter Golden Pal. She dictated the terms to win her April 9 debut by 4 1/2 lengths.
The day prior, Waggley won for the barn in a faster time for the 4 1/2 furlongs, with fellow Juvenile entrant Frontline Fury finishing third. Waggley should have no problem with the slightly added distance, being from the first crop of Life Is Good. She is also a half-sister to a graded stakes-placed dirt router.
The fastest 4 1/2-furlong dirt maiden winner of the Keeneland meet was Ward’s Suspicions, despite running on a sloppy, sealed track. A pair in here exit that race, as Bourbon Town finished second and Super Saiyajin was fourth after getting off slow.
Super Saiyajin is the only horse in the Kentucky Juvenile field with two starts under his or her belt, as the colt returned to be a much-improved second by a head running back 13 days later, where he led in the lane and was caught late. American Pope was fifth in that race.
Bourbon Town, trained by Rey Hernandez, was impressive enough finishing second by two lengths to Suspicions that Triple Crown Capital Stables, which has Michael Iavarone as its CEO, bought into the colt along with original owner Kentucky Horsemen LLC. Iavarone and TCC also just purchased Peak Perspective for $310,000 at last Friday’s Keeneland April horses of racing age sale. The filly, trained by Ben Colebrook, was seventh at first call of her April 15 debut before coming on belatedly to be third.
“She came with a nice late run, which was very impressive, which is what caught our eye,” bloodstock agent David Meah said. “A good race, the winner looks very good, and we love the way she galloped out. She was definitely on our radar. We’ll run, we’ll have some fun.”
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