Perez Prado In 2012 Grade Stakes Debut

The Bourbon Mile

Grade II
One mile
Firm Turf
$250,000 ($150,000 To The Winner)
All horses, 4 years old and up

This is Eastern Kentucky, and most of the focus this weekend seems to be on who’s going to make the Bluegrass Derby and the Bluegrass Oaks fields, given all the big races being held that will open the door for a few of those lucky three year olds this week.

Yes, the derby fever has definitely kicked in here in Derbyfever, but a lot of people may have forgotten there’s going to be a monster of a turf horse called Perez Prado running on the inner grass course here this weekend in the Bluegrass State.

The four year old scratch-bred son of Kingmambo, the same one who popped that monster 123 speed figure last season, when he almost busted up a 1:32 mile on the turf in the Grade 1 Maudlin Cup in Paris, will be here in Eastern Kentucky trying to kick start his 2012 campaign to get back to the Breeders’ Bowl Mile again this season.

He’s the feature horse–and the favored horse–in the Grade 2 Bourbon Mile this weekend in Eastern Kentucky. And he’s got a pretty nice bunch to contend with here, as he makes his first graded start of 2012.

One of the biggest guys Perez Prado has to face here is Adjudge, who ran second to him in Paris in that super Grade 1 Maudlin Cup last season.

Adjudge was just three years old back then, the last time these two horses faced off, and he popped a 122 speed figure in finishing second in that race, a sure sign that a superstar was in our midst.

Adjudge is going to try to extract some revenge against Perez Prado in Eastern Kentucky in what could possibly prove to be one of the key turf races in the mile division this early in the season.

Here is the field for the running of the Grade 2 Bourbon Mile, for four year olds and up, at one mile on the turf course, here in Eastern Kentucky this weekend.

(1)   CONNOR’S COURT   (15/1)

This is the first stakes action of any kind for Connor’s Court, a five year old lightly raced son of Power’s Court. The horse from Slewsback Stables is picking a tough spot to make his graded stakes debut this weekend. He’s facing a monster field, but he is coming in here on a two-race win streak, the most recent of which was an allowance win in New Hampshire on May 31. He broke the 100 speed figure mark there, when he popped a career-high 104 a little over two weeks ago. It’s a pretty quick turnaround for Connor’s Court off that allowance in New Hampshire, and that win was only the second time he busted the 100 speed figure mark in 17 starts. He raced only a handful of times last season as a four year old. He’s in deep here, but Connor’s Court has been getting better and better each time out in his seven starts for his new connections.

(2)   PAPERBOY   (9/2)

Conquest Farms, owned by Padrebri, sends out Paperboy, a scratch-bred Kentucky son of Smart Strike who returns home to run in the Bourbon Mile this weekend. Paperboy, who’s also got Sadler’s Wells and Kris S. back there in his pedigree, has one graded win so far, and he’s got a pretty decent shot here in the Bourbon Mile. He’s a deep closer who’s coming down in distance here. Paperboy has run a string of nine-furlong races recently. The last time he won a graded race, in fact, the ONLY time he won a graded race was back in October of last season, when he won the nine-furlong Grade 3 Patrick Ewing in New York. He popped a 113 speed figure there, and that’s where he started his most recent nine-furlong race streak. This drop in distance is kind of questionable for Paperboy, given the fact that he does like to come from so far back. But he’s got the rail here, and he should get a ground-saving trip. The last time he ran a mile was when he ran seventh in the Grade 2 Dell Web Mile in California back in August. That bunch was just too fast for him late. He’ll be looking to improve on that 104 speed figure he ran there in his last try at a mile.

(3)   ADJUDGE   (3/1)

Adjudge appears to be the main threat here to Perez Prado in the Bourbon Mile this weekend. The four year old son of Bernardini is out of the Sadler’s Wells mare Puentalarre, and he would have been the toast of Paris last year in the Grade 1 Maudlin Cup, had it not been for Perez Prado stealing his thunder. See, on that day, the three year old Adjudge ran a 122 speed figure, good enough to win just about any race, anywhere, against any field in the world. And it looked like Adjudge would have copped that race–if the finish line had been about 50 metres farther down the track. Perez Prado busted the mile in 1:32 2/5 in that Grade 1 Maudlin Cup, and Adjudge was breathing down his neck at the wire. It looks like it might play out the same way here this weekend, with Adjudge roaring from the back of the pack late against a speedy Perez Prado. Adjudge has won six graded races, starting off with the Golden Shoe, in his two-year-old season back in 2010. He’s got a resume that any horse would die for. And he’s also got to deal with Perez Prado here.

(4)   LOCAL CAT   (20/1)

Here’s something you don’t see very often in these big races in Eastern Kentucky. A North Carolina-bred. Local Cat is a five-year-old son of Chelsea Cat, and he’s out of the French Deputy mare Air Marshall. Local Cat is one of the longer shots here in the Bourbon Mile at 20/1. Local Cat ran mostly on the dirt early on, before he was claimed for $15,000 in March of 2011. A year and a month later, Qwikvett Stables has this one poised to run with some of the best in the world in the Grade 2 Bourbon Mile. Whether or not he can beat the best is another question. But at least he’s in here, trying. He comes off a win in a local-bred mile allowance race in Georgia, race where he popped a 104 speed figure in a 1:34 4/5 winning time. It was the first time he’s ever run a sub 1:35 mile, but he’s going to need much better than that to keep up with this group here in Eastern Kentucky this weekend. Four of his six wins came for his new connections, who placed him on the turf once he acquired him. The grass is where he belongs. Can the North-Carolina bred run way faster than anything he’s ever run before, to keep up with this group in the Bourbon Mile? Maybe. We’ll see this weekend.

(5)   METEOR APOCALYPSE   (8/1)

I’ve been wondering when we’d see this guy in a graded race. The four year old son of Northern Meteor has been talented from Jump Street. He had been running some pretty nice speed figures as a three year old last season, but it wasn’t until five starts back, in November, that he popped his first triple digit speed figure. And he’s been doing that consistently ever since. The four year old who is out of the Kingmambo mare Starke Queen comes in here on a three-race winning streak, against allowance company in Jamaica, Colorado and Tennesee. He popped 108 speed figures the last two times out. He’s a deep closer who really needs to stay in touch with this field early. With Perez Prado having so much early speed, it’s hard to run down the likes of a Perez Prado late. Just ask the connections of Adjudge.

(6)   A ROYAL SPIN    (AUS) (6/1)

If anyone has a chance to take down Perez Prado or Adjudge, it just might be this horse. A Royal Spin ran a very regal 115 speed figure three races back that would make him almost unbeatable at this mile distance anywhere in the world. That kicked off a two-race win streak for him. This horse loves this mile distance, having won four of his five tries at this distance. It’s a bit surprising his connections, Willyam13 Stables, haven’t dropped him into more mile races. He’s been running against some tough competition, especially when he beat that field in the GRSimsters 2011 Championships race back in November. That’s when he popped that 115 speed figure in running a 1:33 3/5 time for the mile event. That would probably be good enough to win this weekend here in Eastern Kentucky. Maybe. It all depends on whether Perez Prado or Adjudge are on their game. If either of those two falter, A Royal Spin just might take down this 2012 version of the Grade 2 Bourbon Mile and kick start his own campaign to the Breeders‘ Bowl this year. This horse has the potential to be that good. Remember, he’s only four years old, and he’s almost got a million dollars in the bank already. He is ranked 238^th in the world though, so he needs to do well here, to improve on that ranking. A win would be a nice start to the 2012 graded stakes season for A Royal Spin.

(7)   CURLIN STRIKE   (22/1)

Mark Baggio of Baggio Stables sends Curlin Strike into the fire here in the Bourbon Mile. Apparently, Mr. Baggio knows something we don’t, like maybe the fact that his horse might be sitting on a big race. The four-year old scratch-bred son of Curlin who’s got Danzig and Roberto back there in his pedigree looks overmatched on paper against this bunch. But Mr. Baggio rarely sends his horses into events like this unless he knows two things: (1) His horse is probably sharp and getting ready to bust up a big race, and (2) His horse is ready to make the leap into graded company. These connections are pretty sharp. Curlin Strike is the longest shot in the field at 22/1, and he’s only run a couple of triple digit speed figures. His biggest race was three starts back, when he ran a 104 in an allowance win in Vermont. This horse has never seen a graded race. He’s never even seen a listed stakes race, in fact. He’s got just ten starts on the turf. And he’s also never raced in Europe. And for a turf horse, those four facts might mean the odds of him winning here in the Bourbon Mile are pretty much stacked against him. But look at some of the allowance fields he’s run against in America. 50K, 40K, 50K, 40K. This guy hasn’t been looking for very much easy money in cheap races. That probably explains why he’s only got three wins in 19 career starts. Yes, he’s a long shot here, but you might want to keep your eye on one fact. It’s a Baggio-trained horse. That alone makes him better than this 22/1 he’s getting this weekend in the Bourbon Mile.

(8)    WARTIME EXILE    (5/1)

Wartime Exile looks very live in here for Kevoman Stables. He’s a four-year old son of Daylami out of the Galileo mare Cosmic Heights. He’s only got 15 career starts, but he’s won nearly half of those (7). Pile on top of that the fact that he’s run second four times and third twice, and you come up with a pretty nice strike rate for this South-African bred. What’s also pretty nice about Wartime Exile are the speed figures he’s been running lately. He’s been on fire since April of his three year old season, when he popped his first triple digit speed figure. He was fast early. And he’s stayed fast. He’s run triple digit numbers in eight of his last nine starts. That’s more than half of his young career. He’s also won five of his last seven starts, and he’s coming in here pretty fresh. This is a good time to play this horse. Third start off a layoff, and he busted a 111 speed figure his last time out. He’s ripe and juicy in this spot. And he might just take a few of these monsters in here and teach them a lesson or two. It’s actually a pretty interesting breeding. There’s a lot of Mill Reef in this horse, which makes you think he might want to go longer, but with Galileo in the middle of that pedigree, it’s obviously injected a lot of speed into this guy–speed, which he could turn into the first graded win of his career. He’s only got one graded start in his career, and that was a fifth place finish in the Grade 3 Roy Rogers in California back in May of last year. He wasn’t ready for that bunch. He might just be ready here this weekend in the Bourbon Mile.

(9)   PEREZ PRADO   (*5/2*)

This is a horse I’ve personally been high on for a very long time, way back before he threw that 123 speed figure in winning the Grade 1 Maudlin Cup in Paris last season, on his way to the 2011 Breeders’ Bowl. He’s a five-year old scratch bred son of Kingmambo, who’s also got Sadler’s Wells and Mill Reef back there in his pedigree. Just absolutely classic breeding from Iant Stables. Iant has built a monster of a horse here in Perez Prado. Literally. This horse had an absolutely stellar four-year old campaign. He took down three graded wins last season. And look at the times he was running while winning those three one-mile graded races: 1:33 flat in the Grade 3 Intercontinental, 1:34 4/5 in the Grade 3 Desmond, and a whopping 1:32 2/5 in the Grade 1 Maudlin (by far the finest race of his career, and one of the best in the history of the sim). Perez Prado absolutely sparkled on that day in Paris last season. His speed figures have come down quite a bit since he’s turned five years old, and this isn’t as hard a field as you would have thought the Bourbon Mile might be. What’s pretty amazing about Perez Prado is that through all of his graded wins, through all of those monster speed figures he’s run, through the sparkling campaign he’s been through last season, is that he’s only taken one break to recharge his batteries. That came after Iant tried him on the dirt back in March of 2010. This horse has been ridden hard and put away wet much of his career. He’s coming in here off three consecutive 8.5 furlong listed stakes tries, only one of which he’s won, but he gets back to his preferred distance of a mile here in the Grade 2 Bourbon Mile. He looks tough here, in this spot, if he can regain his 2011 form. He’s breaking from the 9 hole, and he’s got a ton of early speed in his arsenal of weapons, that’s for sure. You’ll probably see Perez Prado on the front end here early, trying to hang on against a late-charging Adjudge.