LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seven of the 10 entrants in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint are exiting the Shakertown Stakes. But the one you want in the Twin Spires isn’t necessarily the Shakertown winner.
Just more than a sixteenth of a mile into the Grade 2 Shakertown four weeks ago at Keeneland, Yellow Card, who had broken from post 4 in a big field of 12, was looking to secure an inside stalking trip when an outside horse took his lane. He was pinched back and steadied, losing several lengths and going from fifth to eighth in a few jumps. Meanwhile, My Boy Prince held position for a perfect inside trip in fourth.
Flavien Prat let Yellow Card gather himself, then put him into a sustained drive midway on the far turn. The horse came as far out as eight wide into the stretch but sustained his kick to the wire, besting all but My Boy Prince, who won by 1 1/4 lengths.
“Flavien was able to go ahead and get him outside of horses at the three-eighths pole, obviously having to forfeit some ground as well, and put in a sustained run through the lane,” trainer Michael McCarthy said. “Was unlucky not to make it a lot closer.”
Yellow Card gets a shot to change his luck Saturday. He and Prat have drawn post 7 in the field of 10, meaning they could get a cleaner trip, but another wide one. The 5-year-old, an allowance winner in his only prior run on the Churchill turf, has always shown ability. He was second by a neck to Howard Wolowitz in the Grade 1 Franklin-Simpson Stakes at Kentucky Downs in 2024 and was Grade 2-placed to another solid foe in Reef Runner last September in California. But he has really hit solid form in 2026, winning the Clocker’s Corner Stakes in February and then shipping back to Kentucky for his creditable effort in the Shakertown.
“He’s always had plenty of ability,” McCarthy said. “He’s had some tough luck, but he’s a horse that shows up every time . . . this is a racetrack and a place that he’s familiar with. He seems like he’s primed to come back and give us another big one.”
Despite his perfect trip, take nothing away from My Boy Prince, who has not missed the board this year and is a deserving favorite for the Twin Spires. The Shakertown was the first graded stakes win for the 5-year-old, but the millionaire had done just about everything else, winning seven other career stakes and earning a Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion 2-year-old male of 2023.
“He’s like our mascot,” trainer Mark Casse said. “He’s been around forever now.”
Mondogetsbuckets outran his odds to be third, just a nose behind Yellow Card, in the Shakertown, coming off a solid winter at Fair Grounds in which he had back-to-back stakes placings. Litigation, who had an even stronger winter at Gulfstream Park, was another neck back in fourth. The colt, an allowance winner at Churchill Downs in October, was coming off wins in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint and the Silks Run Stakes. He had defeated My Boy Prince, who finished third, in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint.
Joe Shiesty looked to be in career form coming in to the Shakertown, with Turfway wins in the Holiday Cheer Stakes over Howard Wolowitz and the Big Daddy Stakes over another talent in this division, Arrest Me Red. He led early in the Shakertown before finishing fifth. Joe Shiesty will have to hustle from the outside post to get the lead in the Twin Spires Turf Sprint, but he is returning to a course he loves. He won the 2024 William Walker Stakes and 2025 Mighty Beau Stakes against a solid field here.
Its Bourbon Thirty and Grade 2 winner Bear River were eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Shakertown.
Possiblemente is coming off back-to-back allowance/optional-claiming wins at Turfway, while Full Disclosure was fifth in a Keeneland allowance race last out. Wendelssohn, a stakes winner on dirt, was cross-entered in the St. Matthews on Thursday but will run here, trainer Chris Hartman said.
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