Wesley Ward trained the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint three years in a row, from 2019 through 2021. But over the last three years, no trainer has found more success with 2-year-old turf sprinters than George Weaver.
During that period, Weaver has gone 25 for 70 in 2-year-old sprint races, a 36-percent strike rate that has produced a $3.93 return on investment. He has run 30 2-year-old sprinters in 24 stakes and come away with 11 wins, and if Johnny’s Red Storm runs to expectations Sunday at Kentucky Downs in the $1 million Juvenile Turf Sprint, Weaver will take down another stakes in the division.
Standing in Johnny’s Red Storm’s way are nine rivals, including a Ward-trained colt named Longshoreman, who aired in a Churchill Downs maiden turf sprint in June. The track’s morning line lists Johnny’s Red Storm as the 3-1 favorite, followed by Obliteration at odds of 7-2. Obliteration makes his turf debut after winning the Sanford in July but finishing second as the 2-5 favorite in the Saratoga Special on Aug. 2.
At 6 1/2 furlongs, the Juvenile Sprint marks the longest race for all the runners save Obliteration, who raced at the distance in the Saratoga Special. Horses not bred in Kentucky run for a $500,000 purse.
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Weaver has gone 2 for 21 at Kentucky Downs, his last winner being Breaker of Chains in a 2021 maiden race. His last 2-year-old starter at the track was Please Advise, who finished third in this race’s 2023 renewal.
Please Advise made his fourth start in the Juvenile Sprint, while Johnny’s Red Storm has but a maiden victory behind him. That came Aug. 3 at Saratoga, where jockey Kendrick Carmouche hustled Johnny’s Red Storm to the lead from an inside draw. Johnny’s Red Storm set the pace, widened to an insurmountable lead with a nice burst coming into the homestretch, and cruised to an easy win in a so-called auction race, restricted to maidens who sold for no more $60,000.
“The horse had definitely shown talent in the morning, and I liked him, and since that was an auction race, I felt pretty confident,” Weaver said. “I didn’t anticipate showing that much speed first time out. Kendrick pressed the accelerator leaving the gate.”
Johnny’s Red Storm, ridden Sunday by Frankie Dettori, drew inside in a race packed with pace. He might not be one of them. In two turf breezes since his maiden win, Weaver has placed Johnny’s Red Storm behind a workmate, the colt relaxing for his rider, attacking, and going past his company.
“Trying to get the horse to go six and a half, I won’t be instructing Dettori to go to the lead at all costs,” Weaver said.
Azizam only came to Weaver from England in early August. A solid-looking debut winner, he broke slowly and rallied steadily for third of 17 in the Windsor Castle at Royal Ascot before clunking home ninth in the Richmond Stakes on July 31 at Goodwood, where a wet course might have proved Azizam’s undoing.
“He’s not a real big horse but real handy and athletic,” Weaver said. “I was happy with both his breezes here. I worked him out of the gate the other day because that’s just what I do with horses from Europe, and I wanted to make sure he got the message.”
While Longshoreman blitzed to the lead and never faced a challenge in his maiden win, Ward, who has gone 7-0-0-2 with Kentucky Downs 2-year-olds since Outadore won this race in 2021, thinks the horse doesn’t need to lead.
“His last work, he sat behind two others and kind of cruised past them. He’s pretty tactical,” Ward said. “After his win, this race was the plan, to sit back and have a nice, fresh horse.”
Obliteration, a blowout winner in his first two starts, worked twice on Saratoga turf after his Aug. 2 defeat. Neither drill was visually impressive. Obliteration is by Violence, an average turf-sprint sire, and out of a dam who never tried turf, though she has produced one turf winner.
Twilight Delight, another pace factor, notched a good-looking debut win in an Ellis Park turf sprint and was flattered when the race’s runner-up, Street Beast, won nicely on Thursday’s card.
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Juvenile Fillies
Kenny McPeek guessed he’d already had 10 2-year-old winners this year, a strong showing in August for a stable not known for going hard with young horses. McPeek was wrong: The number through Aug. 28 was 14. McPeek has confidence that one of those winners, the filly Soloist, will become his first two-time 2-year-old winner this year when she runs in the $1 million Juvenile Fillies on Sunday.
Soloist, owned by Coolmore, is by Into Mischief out of Daddy’s Lil Darling, who McPeek trained to win the Grade 1 American Oaks as well as the 2017 Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs.
“She’s her mother’s daughter, a total pro, similarly made but a little more compact,” McPeek said.
In her lone start, Soloist rode the rail in an Aug. 3 Ellis Park maiden turf route, squeezed through a gap along the fence under Brian Hernandez, and quickened up to win by a half-length. The filly shows one work since her race, a Keeneland grass drill, but McPeek said Soloist had gotten in plenty of solid training on the turf gallops at his Magdalena Farm outside of Lexington.
“She’s trained very well. I fully expect her to win this weekend,” McPeek said.
Trainer Rodolphe Brisset entered Meringue in the Spinaway at Saratoga but said the filly will run at Kentucky Downs. A solid second in the Adirondack, a Saratoga dirt sprint, Meringue broke from post 1 debuting in a Churchill turf sprint, got away poorly, raced from last, was just fifth at the stretch call, but closed furiously to get up by a neck. By Frosted, Meringue will only improve over longer distances, Brisset said.
“Her weakness is the gate, but she will figure it out,” he said.
Loveliest drew the rail for this, her second start, but showed in a five-length debut win that she’s comfortable racing inside rivals. Loveliest did get a dream trip, coming through a massive gap at the fence turning for home in a two-turn mile, but she made the most of it.
“She was down on the inside and handled it well, wasn’t intimidated by any means,” trainer Eddie Kenneally said. “We feel like she can improve, and perhaps she will need to.”
Tapit scratches in handicap
So many horses went into the Tapit Stakes, the opening day feature at the meet, that the race held together decently even after five of them were scratched to start Sunday in a $500,000 handicap.
Co-highweighted at 121 pounds in this one-mile contest are Mountain Bear, who was scratched from the Tapit and with Funtastic Again gives trainer Wesley Ward two live chances, and Chasing the Crown, who hasn’t started since he ran the race of his life finishing third in the Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 25.
The pick, though, is 20-1 morning-line shot Noises Off, another Tapit scratch. Noises Off won a maiden race by more than six lengths at the 2023 Kentucky Downs meet and last season finished a closing second in this same handicap behind Goliad, who came back a week later to win the Mint Millions.
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