Howard Wolowitz Returns for Turfway Synth Championships

Grade 1 winner Howard Wolowitz will try to repeat in the $250,000 Holiday Cheer Stakes Dec. 13, one of four stakes offered in the second year of the Turfway Park Synthetic Championships. As it did in 2024, the card consists of four $250,000 races, with each race including $50,000 in Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Funds that only registered Kentucky-breds are eligible to win. There are two 6-furlong races and two at a mile, all on Turfway's Tapeta track. The four races have proved popular with horsemen, as evidenced by one 11-horse field and three capacity 12-horse fields, plus four also-eligible entries. All four races attracted graded stakes talent. "If you put the money up, people are going to come," said trainer Brendan Walsh, who has three horses entered in two stakes Saturday at Turfway. "The incentive isn't there to get everything out of Kentucky anymore after Churchill Downs. With the purses, you have to take a good look at Turfway." The Holiday Cheer for 3-year-olds and up going 6 furlongs is the Race 9 feature. Gold Square's Howard Wolowitz, winner of the 2024 Franklin-Simpson Stakes (G1T) at Kentucky Downs, will be shortening up off a seventh-place finish in the Turf Mile Stakes (G1T) Oct. 4 at Keeneland. He is undefeated in two career starts sprinting on a synthetic track and won last year's edition by 1 1/2 lengths in a sharp final time of 1:08.10, just barely off the track record of 1:08.03. Irad Ortiz Jr. has been named to ride the 4-year-old Munnings colt for trainer Jose D'Angelo. Howard Wolowitz will need to be on his game, as the competition runs deep and is led by 2023 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) winner Nobals. A 6-year-old Noble Mission (GB) gelding owned by Patricia's Hope and trained by Larry Rivelli, Nobals has extensive experience sprinting on synthetic tracks with seven wins and four seconds in 12 starts. He sports a 2-2-0 record from four starts at Turfway and is coming off a half-length victory in Woodbine's Kennedy Road Stakes (G2), a race he also won in 2024. Lucky Score, who crossed the line second in the Kennedy Road but was placed fourth by the stewards, invades from Woodbine for trainer Mark Casse. My Charmer Stakes The stakes action begins with the My Charmer Stakes for fillies and mares going a mile in Race 6. WinStar Farm's Caitlinhergrtness, Canada's champion 3-year-old filly of 2024, could be favored off her strong 3-year-old form of 2024 that included a third-place finish in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) and what has been a solid 4-year-old campaign this year in Canada. The Omaha Beach filly trained by Kevin Attard has two wins and three seconds in seven starts this year, all in graded company. Holiday Inaugural Stakes The Holiday Inaugural Stakes—for fillies and mares going 6 furlongs—drew a pair of 3-year-old fillies from the Godolphin barn. Civetta (Into Mischief), a stakes winner on the turf at Gulfstream Park as a 2-year-old, tries synthetic for the first time after capturing a turf-sprint allowance race Nov. 1 at Churchill Downs. Godolphin's Pondering won the 7-furlong Bessarabian Stakes (G3) last out at Woodbine, where she defeated Caitlinhergrtness by three-quarters of a length. By Hard Spun, Pondering also is a stakes winner going 5 1/2 furlongs on turf. "When (Pondering) is good, she's very good," trainer Walsh said. "She ran a great race at Woodbine. She's a very, very talented filly. She's been at Turfway all year, and she works very well over the surface there. If she runs her best race, it should make her very competitive. "The 6, 7 furlongs is probably her distance, with plenty of pace in front of her. But that's an awkward distance (on turf) in this country. This is a nice distance for her. "I don't think there is much between the two of them. (Civetta) is a half sister to Santin, with whom we won a couple of grade 1s, so she's a valuable filly as she is." LNJ Foxwoods' Ellen Jay, a 4-year-old Constitution filly, has run on a synthetic track only once, but it was a wide, eye-catching performance for second in the Sept. 19 Presque Isle Downs Masters Stakes (G2). She comes in off a form-darkening sixth sprinting on the dirt, a surface she is winless on in three starts, but the Brad Cox trainee has attracted the services of 2024 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Flavien Prat and should be one of the favorites. Prairie Bayou Stakes The Cox-Prat pairing also could be one of the main choices in the 1-mile Prairie Bayou Stakes with Godolphin's Encino, though he did draw the outermost 12-post. The 4-year-old Nyquist colt won the Presque Isle Mile Stakes on synthetic two back, and his 2-2-0 record from four starts at Turfway includes a win in the 2024 John Battaglia Memorial Stakes and a second in this year's Kentucky Cup Classic Stakes (G3). "We got him back up to Turfway the other week and he put in a solid work over the track," Cox's local assistant Trace Messina said. "He's obviously run well at Turfway in the past and we're really looking forward to getting him back over the surface for Saturday's race." True North Stable and Bloom Racing Stable's Dresden Row finished second, beaten just a head, in last year's Prairie Bayou, and he returns for another shot. The Canadian shipper trained by Lorne Richards won the Autumn Stakes (G3) at Woodbine in his most recent start in a return to his top form. "Saturday is another example of Kentucky's racetracks working with the horsemen to find ways to strengthen the product throughout the state," said Alex Foley, executive director of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent & Protective Association. "The Synthetic Championships will put the focus on Turfway Park this weekend, providing one of the winter's best betting cards. We see the event only growing each year."