Amazombie to win over seven furlongs for the first time in the Churchill Downs Stakes
Trainer William Spawr wasn’t intending to run his 2011 champion sprinter, Amazombie, in the Grade 2, $400,000 Churchill Downs Stakes, because the purse was $300,000, but recently a 100 grand added and Amazombie is good to go.
Co-owned by William Spawr with Thomas C. Sanford, Amazombie is 0 of 2 in seven furlong races, and he stretches out in the Churchill Downs Stakes to seven furlongs, but Spawr was confident that the distance isn’t going to be a problem, and that his sprinter
will do it easy.
“He said the way he skips over this track he could run a mile here,” said Spawr.
Amazombie will probably down the distance, but that doesn’t mean he will have it easy in the Churchill Downs Stakes, because his return to the Churchill Downs will be welcomed by two graduates of last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint as well as the second and
third place finisher from the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
Bred in California by Gregg Anderson, the 6-year-old gelding, Amazombie started off his 2012 campaign with a third place finish to winner, The Factor, in the Grade 2 San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita, going over a distance of seven furlongs.
However, he bounced back in his next start and took the Grade 2 Potrero Grande Stakes by three quarters of a length from runner up, Roman Threat, going over a distance of six and a half furlongs on 7 April, 2012, at Santa Anita, as Camp Victory finished
third.
“He never even pulled out the stick out,” trainer Bill Spawr said, referring to jockey Mike Smith in the Potrero Grande. “He just hand rode him.”
The Churchill Downs Stakes have reeled in eight 4-year-old and above colts and geldings to run over a distance of seven furlongs on 5 May, 2012, and assuming that he will come off the pace, Amazombie will like the post number 6 that he drew.
The son of Hold That Tiger, Smiling Tiger would like to bounce back from his fourth place finish in the Grade 1 Pat O’Brien Handicap, and so will Apriority from a second place finish in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Stakes.
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