Gold Square LLC’s TWO OUT HERO (War Front), a finalist for Champion Two-Year-Old Colt or Gelding in Canada at the April Sovereign Awards, is entered in the $175,000 John Battaglia Stakes at Turfway Park on the night of February 21. Trained by Sovereign Award finalist Kevin Attard, Two Out Hero got stuck with post position 12 at draw time for the 1 1/16 mile race on Tapeta. Rafael Hernandez, who rode the colt in all three races at Woodbine last year, will be on board.
Two Out Hero, who is also nominated to next Saturday’s FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH STAKES (G2) at Gulfstream Park, has been busy working right along at Palm Meadows this winter where Attard has set up shop for the first time in several years.
The Kentucky-bred colt won his career debut by 12 lengths in a 6 furlong Tapeta race and won the Soaring Free Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on the grass. He was third, just a length behind winner Argos, in the Grade 1 Summer Stakes to complete his juvenile campaign.
The John Battaglia Memorial, part of the Prep Season on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, will be contested as Race 9 on the 10-race program with a post time of 9:55 p.m. (all times Eastern). First post is 5:55 p.m. The 1 1/16-mile race will award qualifying points to the top five finishers on a 20-10-6-4-2 scale toward a spot in the starting gate for the 152nd running of the $5 million Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve (Grade I) on May 2.
Midway Racing’s two-time stakes winner STREET BEAST (Street Sense) will step onto the Road to the Kentucky Derby when he leads an oversubscribed field of 13 entered in the Battaglia.
Street Beast will make his second start as a three-year-old after winning the Jan. 17 Leonatus by a length under jockey Luan Machado. Trained by Ben Colebrook, Street Beast was a two-time winner at Kentucky Downs over an 11-day span, breaking his maiden Aug. 28 before capturing the $1 million Juvenile Mile (Listed) by seven lengths. A son of Street Sense, he finished a valiant fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (GI). Machado will be back aboard and break from the rail.
Another stakes winner in the field is West Paces Racing, Rainbow’s End Racing Stable and Anthony Pisco’s ATTFIELD (Vekoma), named after John Attfield, son of two-time Hall of Fame inductee Roger Attfield.
A winner of the $150,000 Central Park Stakes (Listed) in November at Aqueduct, Attfield is set to make his seasonal debut in the John Battaglia Memorial. Trained by Tom Morley, he broke his maiden on debut at Saratoga and then finished third in the Futurity Stakes (GIII) during the Belmont at Aqueduct meeting. Ricardo Santana Jr., who rode him to victory in the Central Park, will ride the chestnut colt from post 7.
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