BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Robert and Lawana Low’s Liam’s Law, unbeaten in his last two races including a neck victory in the Grade 3 With Anticipation at Saratoga Race Course, takes aim on one of thoroughbred racing’s biggest stages Friday in the $1 million Brown Advisory Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland. The bay colt was the first winner and first stakes-winner for Ocala Stud’s freshman sire Colonel Liam and has drawn post eight in a full field of fourteen 2-year-olds that will race one-mile on the turf.
In addition to the winner’s share of the purse expected to be more than $500,000, a Grade 1 victory outside Florida-bred earns a $7,500 Export Incentive for Ocala Stud as breeders paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
Ocala Stud alone and in partnership has bred 13 Florida-bred Breeders’ Cup starters, just two shy of FTBOA Hall of Fame members Arthur I. Appleton and Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Stud. Appleton and Weber top the all-time list of Breeders’ Cup starts with Florida-breds by breeder. Ocala Stud in partnership as breeders are this year also represented R Disaster and Nooni in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) so if all three make the starting gate they vault to the top of the list.
The Lows, who campaigned Colonel Liam during his multiple Grade 1-winning career that saw him earn more than $1.8 million, purchased Liam’s Law for $120,000 out of the Ocala Stud consignment at this year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-year-olds in training.
They sent Liam’s Law to trainer Todd Pletcher, who also conditioned the sire, but bad weather forced the colt’s debut off the turf and onto a sloppy five-and-a-half furlongs during the Belmont at Big A meet at Aqueduct on May 24. The off track and some traffic in the turn resulted in him finishing fourth, but he has rebounded to win his last two on his preferred grass surface around two turns.
Liam’s Law was a convincing, length-and-a-quarter winner of mile-and-a-sixteenth maiden special weight on the Saratoga inner turf on July 12 then took the With Anticipation while leading from the start on September 5—pushing his career proceeds to $192,100 in his three races.
“I thought it was another move forward and it seems like he’s getting better and better,” Pletcher said of Liam’s Law after the With Anticipation. “He’s a big, scopey horse. Great to be around, very professional, and he seems to take to the grass pretty well.”
Out of the winning Kitten’s Joy mare Quickasakitten, Liam’s Law seeks to become the first Florida-bred winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
This will be the first Florida-bred Breeders’ Cup starter for the Lows. However, they owned Capote Belle, seventh in the 1996 Sprint (G1); Green Fee, fifth in the 2022 Marathon; and Sweet Melania, third in the 2019 Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).
Jose Ortiz will be aboard Liam’s Law for the first time.
The 3-1 morning line favorite is How’s Al Today, a winner of three of four, most recently the $731,000 Juvenile Mile (Listed) by four-and-a-half lengths at Kentucky Downs on September 9.
The chestnut son of Munnings races for Gold Square and also counts a four-length triumph in a restricted allowance race at Kentucky Downs on August 29 and a length-and-three-quarter introduction victory in a five-and-a-half-furlong maiden special weight at Churchill Downs in June. His only loss came on dirt in his second start when third in the six-and-a-half-furlong Saratoga Special (G2) at Saratoga Race Course on August 1.
Brian Hernandez Jr. has the return mount on How’s Al Today, an earner of $681,584 to top the entries.
Al Siraaaa Racing’s Folsom Blues (Ire) ranks second in earnings among the Juvenile Turf contenders with $496,240.
Trainer Joseph O’Brien brings the bay son of Blue Point (Ire) from Europe where he won two of six starts on grass including the Group 1 Vincent O’Brien National over a yielding seven furlongs at The Curragh Racecourse in County Kildare, Ireland in September.
Folsom Blues exits a second to Amusingly in the seven-furlong Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) on the Longchamp in Paris on October 4.
Jockey Dylan Browne Mcmonagle will take Folsom Blues from post 10 and they are 7-2 on the morning line.
Rounding out the entries for the Juvenile Turf are Induction and jockey Junior Alvarado, Flavien Prat takes the call on Avec Toi, Florida Bay (Ire) will have Wayne Lordan in the tack, Haffner teams with Christophe Soumillon, Pikachu (GB) gets David Egan as a pilot, Let Em Know will have Edgard Zayas in the irons, Sale Shark (Ire) will be guided by Oisin Murphy, Man’s Best Friend (Ire) gets jockey Colin Keane, William Buick is named on Oscar, Tyler Gaffalione has the engagement on Agate and Great Barrier Reef (Ire) will have Ryan Moore taking the reins. Popcorn is the lone entrant on the also-eligible list.
Return to the October 29 issue of Wire to Wire
