Comport goes for a nice payday on Sunday as he runs in the $200,000 Ellis Park Juvenile, one of two stakes for 2-year-olds on the card, along with the $200,000 Ellis Park Debutante for fillies.
Comport pressed the pace, dueled, and kicked clear for a 2 1/4-length win in his debut on June 1 at Churchill Downs. He then finished second by 3 3/4 lengths in the Bashford Manor behind Romeo, who proceeded to sell for $1.7 million at the Fasig-Tipton horses of racing age sale. In the Bashford Manor, Comport pressed the winner and finished seven lengths clear of the third horse.
Comport, who seems a forward type, was entered in last weekend’s Grade 2 Saratoga Special, but trainer Eddie Kenneally opted to scratch him and keep him in Kentucky for this engagement. It will likely suit the colt better, as he would have been obligated to run with the speedy winner of the Saratoga stakes, Ewing.
Trainer Steve Asmussen sends out two runners, both bred for juvenile success. Papa Ken is one of eight winners on the season for sire Yaupon, a Grade 1 winner also trained by Asmussen who is currently the leading freshman sire by both winners and earnings. Papa Ken was professional stalking the pace and running through the stretch for a game neck win in his June 28 debut at Churchill, and he comes in here off a bullet work at Ellis.
Papa Ken’s stablemate Spice Runner is a full brother to former Asmussen trainee Gunite, a Grade 1-winning juvenile who added Grade 1 success sprinting as an older horse. After a clear debut win on May 23, Spice Runner never quite got into a comfortable rhythm in the Bashford Manor, chasing the pace after breaking from the rail and fading to fifth. He is drawn more outside here, and if he settles into stride, he could perhaps find a more comfortable trip stalking rather than chasing.
Earlier on the card in race 4, the Debutante features a filly who is already a stakes winner. Kingsolver finished a green fifth on debut at Churchill Downs, a race that trainer Rodolphe Brisset opined “was the best maiden for 2-year-old fillies we saw all spring at Churchill.” Best Friend, the third-place finisher from that race, is now stakes-placed and also runs earlier on the card.
Kingsolver proceeded to upset the Schuyerville on July 4 at Saratoga. But rather than continuing with the 2-year-old filly series in Saratoga, Brisset opted to bring her home to Kentucky. She is stretching out from six furlongs to seven, and her trainer has already expressed that he does not know how far the filly ultimately will want to run – or what surface it will be on.
“The breeze at OBS [was on a synthetic surface], and she looks a little turfy on her physical, too,” Brisset told NYRA’s publicity department. “Hopefully she’ll grow a little bit, and I don’t know if she wants to go too far. [Sire] Omaha Beach can give you anything. Obviously, she’s a stakes-winner on the dirt, but sometimes you’ve got to look past that. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up on the green stuff.”
Chopsticks is by 2-year-old champion Essential Quality, who was at his best when he went two turns late in that season. This filly, a debut winner at six furlongs, will certainly love the additional distance.
In the field of six, the fillies won maiden races at six different tracks, with Prowess the only one to do so at Ellis.
In addition to perhaps providing clues to the stakes, a pair of $100,000 maiden special weights for juveniles early on the card are fine affairs in their own right.
Best Friend looks strong in the first race, which is for fillies. After coming out of the same well-regarded maiden as Kingsolver, she proceeded to finish second by a neck in the Prairie Gold Lassie to Sassy C W, who is already a multiple stakes winner. Another entrant, Flower Stone, is a Yaupon filly making her debut and is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner White Abarrio.
In the third race, a turf sprint, She’s On a Roll faces males, which is nothing new for her. She was fourth on debut against males behind three next-out winners in a race won by Grade 3 Sanford winner Obliteration. She then ran fourth again, this time behind Ewing, who won the Saratoga Special last weekend over Obliteration.
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