Handicapper's Corner: Charles Town Classic (G2)

On the Warpath in the Charles Town Classic

By: Nicolle Neulist, Blinkers-Off

With the Derby Prep season done, there's plenty of attention to lavish on the older horse division.  Fittingly, then, the handicap set gets one of its richest races of the year this weekend.  The Grade 2 Charles Town Classic is an anomaly among graded stakes – not in its distance, a mile and an eighth on the dirt, but in that the nine furlongs covers three tight turns.  But, for horses who can handle a voyage to the Appalachians and a race over such a tight track?  The rewards are rich: the Charles Town Classic offers a $1,200,000 purse.  It’s one of two graded stakes races the West Virginia oval offers (the other is the Charles Town Oaks (G3) in September), but it is by far the richest race of the year at the track.

This year marks the tenth running of the Charles Town Classic.  Inaugurated in 2009 and first graded in 2011, the race's winners have been some of the most durable horses in the modern handicap division.  Its most accomplished star was 2013 winner Game On Dude, a gelding who won 16 times in 34 starts from ages three through seven, and won eight Grade 1 stakes in his career, including three runnings of the Santa Anita Handicap.  Fan favorite Caixa Eletronica, who raced 69 times from ages two through eight, counted an open-lengths victory in the 2012 Charles Town Classic as one of his 23 career wins.

Imperative has been the recent star of the Charles Town Classic: he won the race in both 2014 and 2017, finished second in 2015, and fourth in 2016.  He is one of two two-time winners of the Charles Town Classic; mid-Atlantic mainstay Researcher won the first two runnings, in 2009 and 2010.

This year’s Charles Town Classic drew a field of seven.  Among them, only one has ever run at Charles Town before: War Story finished third in last year’s Charles Town Classic, beaten only half a length for the top prize by his then-stablemate Imperative.  Though that came over a sloppy track, War Story has enough good dry track form that it would be no surprise to see him do two spots better this time around.  With Afleet Willy fast enough to give Diversify a challenge up front (and, likely, too much of a challenge for the likely chalk to stay the trip!), the pace should be honest.  War Story should be able to track off of them and make a well-timed move.  Though he loses Irad Ortiz, his rider for his impressive last-out score in the Challenger Stakes, he does get Javier Castellano.  War Story has back form with Castellano, who piloted him to victory in the Brooklyn (G2) last June.  Taken together, War Story is in at the right class level, shows the right recent form, and returns to a unique track that he has proven he can handle.  He looks impeccably spotted in the Charles Town Classic, and looks like a single here.

Something Awesome has been in, well, awesome form this winter.  In five starts at Laurel since moving into the barn of Jose Corrales, he has won four times, with his only loss being a close third behind Awesome Banner in the six-furlong Fire Plug Stakes.  Though four of those starts were sprints, he stretched out to a mile and an eighth for the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial last month.  Most impressively, given that he was a stretch-out sprinter, he was able to rate through the early stages of the race, make a well-timed move, and run on.  He faces tougher horses here, on a whole, but doesn’t need a major step forward to be a factor here.

Discreet Lover notches up in class here after a decisive victory in the Excelsior (G3) at Aqueduct two weeks ago.  It’s a quick turnaround, but Discreet Lover has already shown he can handle coming right back, as he showed when winning the Swatara Stakes at Penn National last year on just eleven days’ rest.  Though the field, on a whole, was a bit softer than this, he did finish well clear of Fear the Cowboy, one of his Charles Town Classic foes, there.  With proven experience at a mile and an eighth, the ability to take his form to many different tracks, and the ability to run well on the pace, near it, or from well off it, he has appealing dimensions of flexibility.  And, though Discreet Lover has never raced at Charles Town, he is the only one in the field who has a regular member of the local riding colony in the irons: 21% rider J. D. Acosta.  All in all, it would be no surprise for this unheralded, hard-trying runner to be a factor at a price.

Selections:

#5 War Story (5/2)

#4 Something Awesome (8/1)

#3 Discreet Lover (10/1)

Longshot:  if speed does end up carrying the day, #7 Afleet Willy (12/1) looks better set to make an impact than the shorter-priced Diversify.  There are several reasons to stand against Diversify here – he tends to do better over broader courses than smaller courses, and his flashes of form at nine and even ten furlongs have come with an uncontested lead.  With Afleet Willy in the field, Diversify does not stand to get that uncontested lead.  (You’re to Blame may also send, but is likely a bit too slow in the early stages to really vie with these two, and does not likely have the stamina to stay out the trip.)  Afleet Willy will be a longer price than Diversify, and there’s more to like.  Afleet Willy has never been out of the exacta going nine furlongs.  He won the nine-furlong John B. Campbell at Laurel last out after taking some pace pressure, and finished a hard-fought second in the Harrison E. Johnson Memorial Stakes at the distance last year.  The biggest question with Afleet Willy here is the layoff; it has been about two months since he saw the starter.  But, he has been able to fire fresh before, and trainer Claudio Gonzalez does well with horses coming off similar breaks.