Multiple Grade 1 stakes winner Winchester to break his 2011 debut at Arlington Park in the Grade 3 Star and Stripes Stakes
The 6-year-old multiple stakes winner, Winchester, is set to make his season debut in the $100,000, Grade 3 Stars and Stripes Stakes over 1 ½ mile on turf at Arlington Park on 23 July.
Winchester will be heading a field of seven grass runners in the 1 ½ mile event. Christophe Clement trained Winchester will appear for the first time at the Arlington Park race course since his win as a 3-year-old in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes, also
run at the same turf course.
The son of Theatrical has two grade 1 stakes winners under his belt, the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap at Belmont Park on 6 May, 2010, and the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic also at Belmont Park on 2 October, 2010.
The Grade 1 $400,000 Woodford Reserve Manhattan was not won by the horse that everyone was expecting to win. Stablemate, Gio Ponti, was sent as a favourite to win the race, who was also the defending champion.
The field assembled for the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap was the strongest anywhere in the country in 2010, with six millionaires contesting against 11 horses.
Winning a big race like the Manhattan Handicap among top contenders was a great achievement for Christophe Clemet’s horse. He completed the distance under C Velasquez in 1 minute and 59.46 seconds. He was sent at odds of 21.40 to 1.
Winchester has not started since running in the Group 1 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase, where he finished 11th last December. Under jockey Cornelio Velasquez, the horse has been training at Belmont Park to prepare for his return.
Prior to the Manhattan Handicap, Winchester produced a winner in an Allowance race run at a distance of 1 ½ miles at Keeneland.
Garrett Gomez had the mount, as the pair eased past competition to claim the allowance race, beating Memorial Maniac and Perfect Shower to cover the distance in 2 minutes and 31.87 seconds over turf.
Also entering the Stars and Stripes Stakes is the son of Bernstein, Proceed Bee who claimed his last graded stakes win back in 2009 when he won the Grade 3 Hawthorne Derby.
He and his connections will be seeking to kill the drought by winning the Arlington Park event.
Trained by Mike Reavis son of Out of Place, Free Fighter is a potent force among 10 other runners.
He will be looking to win the race he won back in 2009 the Stars and Stripes Stakes when he was under trainer Chris Block. Under jockey Tim Thornton, Free Fighter has had five starts in the year 2011, and all of them winless with a fourth finish at Arlington
Cap at Arlington Park.
Winchester will be eyeing the Grade 1 Sword Dance after the Grade 3 race on 13 August.
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