After a star-crossed trip to Hong Kong, grade 1 sprinter Nobals is fully recovered and prepared to compete in the $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint Stakes (G2T) on May 3 at Churchill Downs in an attempt to reclaim the race he won in 2023. With the intention of being the first American-trained horse to participate in the Hong Kong International Races since 2017, Noble Mission’s 6-year-old gelded son was shipped to Hong Kong in December. The Hong Kong Sprint (G1) had been entered for him. Trainer Larry Rivelli remarked, “That trip was a disaster,” For us, it completely ruined the year. It took him some time to recover from shipping fever. He stayed there for a month longer than I had anticipated him there.
Nobals, a member of Patricia’s Hope, started the year in the five-furlong Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint Stakes on January 25. After being bumped in the beginning, the gelding had trouble getting traction on the sandy turf course of Gulfstream Park. Coppola, who wired the pack and will break from the rail in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint, was only two lengths behind him in seventh place. “(Coppola) daylighted everybody but that is a different turf course,” Rivelli stated. “Churchill, whom Nobals adores, is doing quite well right now. If I didn’t believe he was ready, I wouldn’t take him there. Here, he is exhaling flames. Nobals enters the Turf Sprint after finishing in second place to Arrest Me Red in the March 8 listed Big Daddy Stakes at Turfway Park going six furlongs on the all-weather Tapeta track.
At Hawthorne Race Course, his home base, he completed four furlongs in a precise 1/5 time of :47 on April 13. Gerardo Corrales will join Nobals after they break from post 3. When the gelding won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) and the 2023 Twin Spires Turf Sprint, Corrales was the horse’s pilot. At 7-2 and 4-1, respectively, Godolphin’s homebred Think Big and Wathnan Racing’s Rogue Lightning are the top picks in the morning line. In the April 8 Shakertown Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland, Rogue Lightning, a 5-year-old gelded son of Kodiac, is a half-length behind Think Big going into the Turf Sprint. Tom Clover trained him, and he won several stakes abroad, including the Dukhan Sprint (G3) Feb. 15 at Al Rayyan Racecourse in Doha, Qatar. The Shakertown was his first United States start. In the Turf Sprint at Churchill, he will break from post 8 with Flavien Prat in the irons.
After three starts this season, Think Big has already recorded two victories and a third. After finishing third in a careless $50,000 allowance optional claiming event that was removed from the grass in his seasonal start at Fair Grounds event Course & Slots, he returned to win a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint at the same non-winners of two conditions. Ben Curtis, who has ridden Think Big to all four of his career victories, will ride him in the Turf Sprint after he won his maiden stakes race in the Shakertown for trainer Michael Stidham. Neither Rogue Lightning nor Think Big are expected to be deterred by soft going, as rain is predicted for a number of days before to Kentucky Derby (G1) day. Both have won on soft turf conditions. Nobals ran second on soft turf in the 2023 Troy Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course.
