KY Downs Preview Weekend: 15-for-18 Ova Charges v. Red Carpet Ready in grass debut

Kentucky HBPA press release by Jennie Rees (Coady Media photo above of Red Carpet Ready winning last year’s G2 Eight Belles over favored Munnys Gold at Churchill Downs)

HENDERSON, Ky. — One of the most intriguing match-ups in the seven turf stakes comprising Kentucky Downs Preview Weekend at Ellis Park is Saturday’s stakes for filly and mare sprinters, where Ova Charged takes on Red Carpet Ready.

The winners of Saturday’s three stakes and Sunday’s four stakes receive a fees-paid spot in the corresponding race at Kentucky Downs, whose purses for those events range from $1.5 million to $3.1 million for Kentucky-breds (pending regulatory approval).

Ova Charged, who is 15-for-18 in her career, brings in a seven-race win streak since being sent to Louisiana-based trainer Shane Wilson late last year off a lengthy layoff. If four of those races came against her fellow Louisiana-breds, she also came to Churchill Downs to win the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney on the Kentucky Oaks undercard. Earlier in the winter, she hammered a very good field in the Fair Grounds’ Mardi Gras Stakes against open company.

Ova Charged, the 6-5 favorite in Saturday’s $250,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf Sprint, towers over the field on Brisnet’s “Prime Power” rankings for the race. But Red Carpet Ready, the 2-1 second choice, holds the class edge, having raced predominantly in top sprints for fillies and mares. That includes winning this year’s Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream Park and last year’s Grade 2 Eight Belles on Churchill Downs’ Oaks undercard. Her 5-0-2 record in nine starts includes a third in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Madison.

The catch? All of those races have been on dirt. The fascinating angle? The Keeneland-based Red Carpet Ready is certainly bred for the turf, being by top grass performer and sire Oscar Performance. In fact, had Churchill Downs had grass racing during its 2022 fall meet, that’s where she would have started. Instead, she made her career debut on dirt, winning by 10 lengths — and why switch?

Excellent on dirt, Ova Charged even better on turf

The 6-year-old Ova Charged comes by her winning ways honestly. She’s a daughter of the Louisiana stallion Star Guitar, a Louisiana-bred who won 24 of 30 races and more than $1.7 million. Like his daughter, Star Guitar was bred and raced by Evelyn Benoit’s Louisiana-based Brittlyn Stables. 

Star Guitar never ran on turf, a surface over which Ova Charged is 5 for 5 heading into the 5 1/2-furlong Preview Ladies Turf Sprint. When Wilson ran her in the Mardi Gras, it was Ova Charged’s first start on grass in two years, however. It proved the highest speed figure of her career (102 Bris), until she got a 104 in her next start, also on turf, when back in against Louisiana-breds and won by 12 1/2 lengths.

“When you look up her mother (Charged Cotton), she was a stakes-winning route turf horse,” Wilson said by phone. “You wonder where did this sprint dirt horse come from? Her sire, he was a sprinter starting out. But when he started routing, that’s where he was his best.

“I always wanted to get her back on turf. The Mardi Gras came up, and she showed she liked it. I’ve run her on the dirt since then. It’s like night and day. The day after she won at Churchill, my son calls me and says, ‘Dad, she’s kicking the walls and running circles in the stall.’ When she runs on the dirt, she’ll stand against the left wall, where her hay corner is, with her head down for a couple of days until she’s back to the front of the stall. She’s a heavy mare, nearly 1,200 pounds. I think maybe she digs down into the dirt and has to pull her way through it, where the grass, she just springs off of it. It doesn’t seem to tire her.”

Because she’s a Louisiana-bred, Ova Charged is racing for $125,000, with a win leaving her just shy of being a millionaire. The other $125,000 is reserved for horses eligible for the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

 “They ought to give me more money, me being a Louisiana-bred running against the blue bloods,” Wilson said. “(But) the timing of this was good. She seems to run her best with four to five weeks between races. She shipped really well when she went to Churchill. She’s a graded-stakes winner, graded-stakes placed. I’m sure this is it for her. We’ll go through the Fair Grounds season if everything goes right and then she’ll go be a mama.

“I want to keep her in spots where it looks like she can win if everything goes right. It’s still a competitive field. The second choice is a really nice filly. But Ova Charge is doing super. She came out of the race in Texas (Lone Star’s Chicken Fried in her last start) like she never even ran. She was running the stall, squealing and playing, the next day after the race. As long as she’s excited to go to the gate and compete against everybody, acts like she still wants to do it, we’re going to keep going.”

Wilson, who won his first Fair Grounds training title over the winter, runs for the first time at The Pea Patch.

“I’ve never been to Ellis Park, and Ova Charged has never been to Ellis Park,” he said, “so we’ll be doing something new together.”

Jockey Corey Lanerie, who won eight races on Star Guitar, picks up the mount. Lanerie and his late wife, Shantel, named their daughter Brittlyn after Star Guitar’s owner. 

“Ten years before we ever wanted a kid, my wife Shantel said if she ever had a girl, she was going to name it Brittlyn,” Lanerie said in a text. “It came from the stable name.”

Turf’s up (next) for Red Carpet Ready

Arnold is hoping for a return to the form that saw Red Carpet Ready win four of her first five races for owners Ashbrook Farm and Upland Flats Racing. Following the Hurricane Bertie victory to kick off her 4-year-old season, Red Carpet Ready faded to third in Keeneland’s Grade 1 Madison after setting a blistering and contested pace from her inside post. In her next start, she weakened to eighth in the Grade 1 Derby City Gaming on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Arnold said Red Carpet Ready came out of the Churchill race with a minor issue. She has six timed workouts since then, including most recently motoring a half-mile in 47 1/5 seconds at Keeneland (on dirt). If she handles the Ellis turf Saturday, it will be on to the $1.5 million Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf Sprint on Aug. 31.

“I’m not going to have trouble getting in at Kentucky Downs with her,” Arnold said, referencing graded-stakes winners having preference in Kentucky Downs’ often-overfilled races. “But I want her to race on the turf to see if she handles it. That’s why we’re there. Ova Charged has won seven straight; she’s probably the best sprinter there is. It’s plenty tough enough. We don’t have to win because it is 5 1/2 (furlongs) and Kentucky Downs is 6 1/2.

“If we don’t handle the turf right, we’ll probably point for the Thoroughbred Club of America at Keeneland. This gives us an idea of where we want to take her, where she wants to go. She’s ready; doesn’t have an excuse. We’ll leave there tomorrow knowing whether she wants to run next on the turf or dirt.”

It’s not a stretch to think that, given her bloodlines, Red Carpet Ready might move up considerably off what are very good dirt performances. “Yeah, yeah,” Arnold said. “We just hope she reads the pedigree.”

Speaking of pedigrees: Arnold also has Double Clutch running in Saturday’s $250,000 Preview Mint Millions Turf Mile. The 5-year-old gelding is out of Switching Gears, the same Calumet Farm mare who produced Gear Jockey, winner of the $2 million, Grade 2 Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint two of the past three years for the same connections.

Double Clutch looked good winning a mile turf allowance at Churchill Downs in his last start, his first win since a maiden race back in April 2022 at Keeneland. 

“I got an opportunity to get in that race,” Arnold said of Kentucky Downs’ $2 million, Grade 3 Mint Millions Mile. “He’s a half-brother to Gear Jockey. He hasn’t run down there; the other horse loves the course, and we’re hoping he will, too. I know he’s up against a little more established horses. But he’s a horse who is doing really, really well. Heck, I’m going to give it a shot.”

Arnold thought enough of Double Clutch that he promptly ran the gelding in 3-year-old turf stakes after his maiden win. That included a second to future Grade 1 winner Annapolis. But Saturday’s race will be Double Clutch’s return to stakes company for the first time in almost two years.

“I’ve liked all his races this year,” Arnold said. “I think he’s at the peak of his game right now. He’s a horse that, at his best, I think he belongs.”

Arnold is a huge fan of Preview Weekend. In 2019, owner Jim Hill identified the Preview Turf Sprint as a way to get Totally Boss into their real objective: the corresponding race at Kentucky Downs. Totally Boss won both races. 

“He wasn’t a stakes winner, and the Ellis race is what got him in,” Arnold said. “It worked for him. So it’s a chance to get Double Clutch in.”

And speaking of Gear Jockey, that gelding was sidelined by a minor issue but remains on a narrow path to try to defend his Turf Sprint win at Kentucky Downs. Arnold said he was very pleased with Gear Jockey’s work Friday morning at Keeneland, the gelding’s first since early June.

“We’re on a tight schedule,” he said. “… If we don’t have another set back, we’re running.”