LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Horses who win the Grade 2, $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes have gone on to big things. Two years ago, Nobals won in a season he concluded by winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Last year, Cogburn used a win here as a launching pad to set a North American record in his subsequent start.
So it’s valid to think big with Think Big, who shipped in from Fair Grounds to score a handy half-length score in the Grade 2 Shakertown during the first week of the Keeneland meet. He gets another litmus test Saturday at Churchill Downs while facing a pair of former Twin Spires Turf Sprint winners in Nobals and 2022 victor Arrest Me Red. Those two are coming off a thrilling tilt at Turfway Park that shows they’ve still got fire as veteran campaigners.
“He’s got to come back and run similar or even a touch better than he did in his last start to win this race,” said Think Big’s trainer Michael Stidham. “I think it’s a very contentious, deep field.”
Think Big has won four of eight starts overall. The Twirling Candy gelding is unbeaten in three outings on turf, all with jockey Ben Curtis, who has spent many months developing a rapport with the Godolphin homebred.
“We knew from the beginning that there was turf in his family, and so it was something that we had in the back of our mind,” Stidham said. “Naturally, when he ran okay on the dirt and won on the dirt, we decided to stay there until it started looking like maybe a surface change was going to help him, and obviously it did.”
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While Curtis has won with the gelding from different spots and relishes his versatility, Stidham was happy to see Think Big put himself in the race earlier on a turf rated good in the Shakertown. He could get similar conditions Saturday, with precipitation expected during the week.
“We weren’t sure what he would do on that softer surface, but he seemed to love it,” Stidham said. “I really liked the way he, down the backside, was a little more forward without even being asked to be there. Hopefully it’ll be a similar situation at Churchill.”
If Think Big is more forward again, he could find himself in a crowd. The brilliantly quick stakes winner Coppola, who has drawn the rail here, led into the stretch of the Shakertown before fading, while Arrest Me Red and Nobals threw down right out of the gate when they were one-two in the Big Daddy on March 8 at Turfway. Boss Sully has also shown speed, while Run Carson and Shakertown runner-up Rogue Lightning want to be close to the proceedings as well.
Millionaires and multiple graded-stakes winners Arrest Me Red and Nobals put on a show at Turfway, with trainer Wesley Ward surprised by the speed Arrest Me Red showed to lead throughout in his first start since October.
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“I thought [Nobals] would kind of bounce out there, and we’d kind of sit and come around him and make a good run and have him ready for Keeneland,” said Ward. “I guess because he was so sharp, he bounced out there on the lead in front of [Nobals] and he just kept going. He wasn’t letting him by. So he ran such a big race that day that it kind of knocked me out of the Shakertown, which was my original intent. He’s had good spacing between his win and this race.”
Nobals was eating into Arrest Me Red’s margin at the wire, an encouraging effort off some misadventures. After winning the Grade 2 Kennedy Road at Woodbine in November, a trip to Hong Kong followed, but Nobals developed a fever after shipping and was scratched from the Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint. He returned to action Jan. 25 in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint and was beaten two lengths while seventh on a track that was harder and sandier than he cared for, according to trainer Larry Rivelli, who has also entered millionaire and graded-stakes winner One Timer.
Knicks Go
Liberal Arts was a Grade 3 winner at Churchill in 2023. Looking to rediscover his best form, he again goes over his favorite track in the $200,000 Knicks Go overnight stakes, a one-turn mile for 4-year-olds and up who have not won a graded stakes in 2024-25.
In September 2023, Liberal Arts posted his biggest win at Churchill when trained by Robbie Medina. He went winless in his first three starts to open 2024 while tangling with good company. After an extended break, he resurfaced in November for trainer Brad Cox and won a 7 1/2-furlong allowance at Churchill, improving his record to 4-2-0-2 at the track. Runner-up Banishing has won multiple stakes since and is entered in the Grade 1 Churchill Downs on Saturday.
Liberal Arts was then a runaway allowance winner at Fair Grounds, but he’s now looking to get back in the win column after finishing third in the Fifth Season and fourth in the restricted American Pharoah at Oaklawn Park.
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