Kettle Corn to take on a familiar field in the next month’s Gold Cup
The Californian Stakes lineup might meet each other in the Grade 1, $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup at Betfair Hollywood Park’s cushion track on 7 July, 2012, but unlike the Californian Stakes – which was an allowance race, the Gold Cup is a handicap where there will be equal spreads in terms of weights.
Kettle Corn, who was 7 ¼ lengths off the winner, Game on Dude, in second in the Californian, is trainer by John Sadler and he said that he wants a handicap. Rests assure that the Hollywood Gold Cup is a 1 ¼ mile test over the renowned cushion track that might help Kettle Corn against Game on Dude.
In the Californian, Game on Dude was 120 top weight, whereas Kettle Corn was two short, and Sadler is going to relish the chance of an equal spread in the Hollywood Gold Cup, whose odds just might tilt in Kettle Corn’s favour.
A look at Kettle Corn’s past record would be insightful before deeming him as a favourite against a top American Thoroughbred giant of a horse.
The son of Candy Ride, out of mare Somethingbeautiful, Kettle Corn has been tried and tested on poly track his entire career, with a lone start on turf.
Bred in Kentucky, Kettle Corn as a 5-year-old is in his second year of racing, and with a full season under his belt last year, he majorly dwelled in claimer, allowance, and allowance/optional claimers with distances ranging from a mile to one and one eighth of a mile.
Kettle Corn capped off his 2011 season with a scintillating victory in the Grade 3 Native Diver Handicap going 1 1/8 miles over the Hollywood Park’s cushion track, defeating the highly regarded, Tres Borrachos in second.
This year though, the CRK Stable owned horse is yet to post a victory, but in his two starts he has managed a placed finish in both of them.
Making his seasonal debut in the Grade 2 Mervyn Leroy Handicap, Kettle Corn was a solid third to Morning Line, and recently a second to Game on Dude in the Californian.
The Gold Cup will be Kettle Corn’s first ever attempt at 1 ¼ miles, and with the right weights, this just might be his kind of distance to track down Game on Dude.
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