Mike previews the 2022 Turf Sprint Stakes (G2) at Kentucky Downs, then gives his top picks and longshots from this “Win & You’re In” for the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Can the heavy favorite Arrest Me Red overcome the far outside draw in this deep field? Tell us YOUR thoughts in the Comments section!
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The track press release:
The Ward-trained multiple graded-stakes winner Arrest Me Red is 6 for 10 for his career, most recently narrowly losing the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes after winning Churchill Downs’ Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint.
Totally Boss won the Turf Sprint in 2019 and was seventh in 2020. This will be his third start since coming back after an almost year’s retirement. Other graded-stakes winners include Bran, Chewing Gum, Arzak, Bob’s Edge and Gregorian Chant. Front Run the Fed could move up on soft turf, as when he dead-heated for second in 2020.
Totally Boss, a 7-year-old gelding, was not ready to call it quits.
A year ago at this time, the son of Street Boss was at Margaux Farm in Midway, Ky, his future as a race horse at the crossroads. Jim and Susan Hill of Calgary, Alberta, who own the horse – and the farm – were not sure if Totally Boss wanted to keep doing what he had been doing for so long.
The horse answered the questions and here he is, running in the G2 $1 million FanDuel Turf Sprint at Kentucky Downs Saturday.
“This is a tough race,” trainer Rusty Arnold said. “But he has won on this course and I think he will give a good account of himself. He is coming into it very well.”
Totally Boss, who will be ridden by Florent Geroux in the six-furlong race, which holds a Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” for the Turf Sprint, is 12-1 on the Global Tote morning line.
Arnold said the horse was sent back to Margaux Farm following a dismal seventh-place finish in the Mighty Beau Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 5, 2021.
He was hurting, too.
Jim Hill said Totally Boss had a torn suspensory and then an ailment where he could not hold protein in his feed.
“He lost a ton of weight,” Hill said. “It really set him back.”
As spring turned to summer, fall and then winter, it looked more and more like Totally Boss was going to be retired.
“Some thought he was, and some didn’t,” Hill said. “It depends on how hopeful you are.”
As the calendar turned to 2022, Totally Boss was getting healthy and it appeared he wanted to start training again. Dermot Littlefield, the trainer at the farm, saw the eagerness return.
“We wanted to see how he came out of the winter,” Littlefield said. “We got him under tack in January and he progressed. We got him breezing and he showed a willingness to do it again. He is a very competitive horse.”
He was sent back to Arnold and Totally Boss won his return, an allowance at Churchill Downs on May 28 by 1 3/4 lengths. Then came the Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes at Ellis Park on Aug. 7 and a fourth place finish.
“I thought he would win that, but he has come back and trained well,” Arnold said.
Totally Boss has a history in the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint. He won it in 2019 and was seventh in 2020.
When he goes to the post on Saturday, Totally Boss will have a rooting section. Littlefield is making the drive up from the farm. The Hills, however, will not be able to make the trip from Canada.
“The horse has a great personality,” Littlefield said. “He’s a real fan favorite on the farm and everyone likes him. He never got dull or down on us. He was giving us the right signs.”
Of his 22 career starts, Totally Boss has run 16 times on grass and has six wins, two seconds and a third.
“He still wants to run,” Hill said. “We will just roll the dice and see what happens. It did surprise me that he came back, so I’ll just keep my fingers crossed.”
