Beach Patrol Back in Turf Classic

[Wandering Eyes]

Beach Patrol (Lemon Drop Kid), a finalist for 2017 champion turf male, makes his 5-year-old debut as the 5-2 favorite for Saturday’s GI Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.

The ‘TDN Rising Star’ makes his third Derby weekend appearance in a row, having just been touched off in the dying strides by the re-opposing Camelot Kitten (Kitten’s Joy) in the GII American Turf in 2016 and having dropped a narrow decision to Divisidero (Kitten’s Joy) in this event 12 months back. Things seemed to perk up a bit for Beach Patrol with a midseason switch to Joel Rosario, who was in the irons when proving a half-length superior in the GI Arlington Million last August. The dark bay stretched out to 12 furlongs for the first time in the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational, scoring by five towering lengths, and he was last seen holding on grimly to complete the exacta behind Talismanic (GB) (Medaglia d’Oro) in the GI Breeders’ Cup Turf in November. On the surface, gate 10 is not ideal, but he should be able to slide across his rivals to stalk the pace outside likely front-runner Shining Copper (Aragorn {Ire}).

Synchrony (Tapit) has earned the right to try top-level company and is this field’s form horse, with big wins in the Feb. 17 GIII Fair Grounds H. and a 1 3/4-length defeat of last year’s American Turf upsetter Arklow (Arch) in the GII Mervin Muniz Memorial H. Mar. 24.

Kurilov (Chi) (Lookin At Lucky) should fall into a nice trip from gate three and would represent good value at or near his morning-line quote of 6-1. A Group 1 winner on dirt in his native Chile, the October foal was beaten a neck into third in the Dec. 23 Queens County S. over the Aqueduct main track, but switched to the grass for his latest and nearly claimed the scalp of Heart to Heart (English Channel) in the GI Gulfstream Park Turf S. Feb. 10. The latter franked the form when adding the GI Maker’s 46 Mile S. at Keeneland.

Deauville (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is set for his fifth North American appearance, including a victory in the 2016 GI Belmont Derby and a second straight trifecta finish in the Million last summer at Arlington. He has one run under his belt this term, a narrow runner-up effort in the G3 Earl of Sefton S. at Newmarket Apr. 18.

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