Durante seeks repeat in $275,000 Aristides at Churchill Downs

Durante’s 33-1 upset in last year’s Aristides bought him something every sprint horse wants and almost none keep: a shot to come back and prove it was no fluke. David Jacobson will send the veteran sprinter after a repeat in Saturday’s $275,000 Grade III Aristides at Churchill Downs, a six-furlong test that will anchor Race 8 on Stephen Foster Preview Day.

The setup is as sharp as the race card. Churchill Downs has the first race at 12:45 p.m. Eastern, gates open at 11:30 a.m., and seven stakes will be run on the program. The Aristides will draw 11 entries, making it one of the deepest sprints on the holiday-weekend slate and a demanding assignment for a horse trying to defend a title rather than chase one.

Tyler Gaffalione is named to ride Durante from post 4, and that post could matter in a race that figures to be run at full speed from the break. Churchill Downs’ six-furlong layout tends to expose horses that need too much time to settle, and it rewards runners who can stay close without getting dragged into a suicidal pace duel. That is exactly why Durante’s repeat bid has real juice: Jacobson is trying to keep an accomplished sprinter sharp enough to handle a tougher field the second time around.

The threats are legitimate. Bob Baffert will be represented by Cornucopian and Madaket Road, a pair that gives the race both class and current form. Cornucopian, owned by SF Racing, LLC, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, LLC, Stonestreet Stables, LLC, Bashor Racing, LLC, Determined Stables, Masterson, Robert E., Ryan, Tom J., Waves Edge Capital, LLC, Donovan, Catherine and Hill ’n’ Dale Equine Holdings-Lessee, won the Grade III San Carlos Stakes at Santa Anita on March 29 by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:20.71. Madaket Road just won a six-furlong allowance at Churchill Downs on May 8, which tells horseplayers he arrives with the kind of recent sharpness that can make a spring sprint ugly in a hurry.

The Aristides has been run at Churchill Downs since 1989 and is named for Aristides, the horse who won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875. Recent winners such as Gunite, Volatile and Bango show how often the race produces a useful sprint form line. Shane Sellers leads all jockeys with three Aristides wins, while Paul McGee, D. Wayne Lukas and Steve Asmussen are tied at three training victories apiece.

For Jacobson, a repeat would do more than add another trophy. It would signal that Durante still belongs among the division’s relevant older sprinters and would keep Churchill’s holiday-weekend stakes card centered on a horse that already delivered one of the meet’s most lucrative surprises.