BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Stakes-placed Florida-breds Victory Achieved and Louie the Sun King will try first black-type wins Saturday in a large field of 14 in the $150,000 Van Clief Stakes for 3-year-olds and older at Colonial Downs.
A win by either in the five-and-a-half-furlong sprint on the turf would garner their respective breeders a $4,000 Export Incentive paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
Victory Achieved seemed primed to become a stakes winner late in his last race—the $99,000 Karl Boyes at Presque Downs on July 3. After stalking frontrunner Jean Valjean, Victory Achieved took a short lead around the turn but was carried wide into the stretch. Meanwhile, Florida-bred Spirited Sol cut the corner and used the ground-saving trip to win at odds of 34-1 with Victory Achieved picking up the pieces to finish second.
In his only other start this year, the Live Oak Plantation homebred won an upper level, $62,500 optional claiming going five furlongs on the Gulfstream Park synthetic course on May 30. Among his three starts last year, Victory Achieved was also second to Simcoe in the Grade 3 Bold Venture racing six-and-a-half furlongs on the Woodbine all-weather main track in August.
Victory Achieved is trained by Mark Casse and has won four with two seconds and a third in 11 starts, earning $187,841. He is by Street Sense out of Lady of Victory by War Front and will be ridden from post six by Sonny Leon. They are 30-1 on the morning line.
Louie the Sun King enters off a two-length victory on July 18 after missing by just a nose to Van Clief-entrant The Minkster on June 25, both in second condition $50,000 optional claiming races going five-and-a-half furlongs on the grass at Colonial. He was also fourth in the aforementioned $62,500 optional claiming won by Victory Achieved in May.
A homebred for Endsley Oaks Farm, the loss to Victory Achieved was the only finish out of the top three this year for Louie the Sun King who has one win, four seconds and a third in seven races in 2026. He has been equally productive throughout his career with five wins, eight seconds and four thirds in 24 races and revenues of $293,400. The 5-year-old gelded son of Ocala Stud stallion Awesome Slew is out of E Street Bourbon, by E Dubai.
Trainer Kathleen O’Connell will give a leg up on Louie the Sun King to Mychel Sanchez and they have drawn post three. Louie the Sun King is 15-1 in the program.
Casse will also saddle the 3-1 morning line favorite, My Boy Prince, who earlier this year won the $100,000 Turf Dash at Tampa Bay Downs in February and the Grade 2 Valvoline Global Shakertown and Keeneland on April 4. Casse brings My Boy Prince in from Saratoga where he was fifth in the Jaipur (G1) on June 6 and seventh in the one-mile Kelso (G3) in his last race on July 5.
John Velazquez will ride My Boy Prince from post 13.
Completing the entries are Had to Have Him with Jevian Toledo riding, Alogon will have Javier Castellano up, The Minkster with jockey Jareth Loveberry, Johan Rosado will guide Its Bourbon Thirty, Witty has Jeiron Barbosa named to ride, Samuel Marin takes the reins on Quereme Pass (Arg), Isivunguvungu (Saf) has Jorge Ruiz named to ride, Horacio Karamanos will be aboard Nothing Better, Card Trick will have Forest Boyce in the saddle, Paco Lopez captains Governor Sam and Manny Franco will pilot Chasing Liberty.
Return to the July 29 issue of Wire to Wire
