Baby Talk Info & Intel: Churchill Downs – Race 4 – Sunday, June 29, 2025

Thirteen colts have gone through the entry process, but only twelve will step forward into the starting gate. These colts will travel six furlongs on the dirt, and it appears to be a terrific end to our Wonderful 2YO affairs for Churchill’s Spring Meet. No Debut-Crop sires are represented, but how about this list of sires with runners? Two from Not This Time, and one each from Quality Road, Justify, American Pharoah, Bolt d’Oro, Munnings, Gun Runner, Vekoma, and Curlin (plus Gun Runner has a second dude that’s listed as the Also Eligible entrant). Only two of these dudes have ever previously raced. It’s time to jump in and pull this talented field apart…

#2 Exonerate (7/2) – Brad Cox (2/16, 12.5%) saddles the ML favorite by Justify (16.9%), and he comes from a dam by Street Sense. Momma only started twice, but scored one time, and this is her first foal. He hammered for $300K last year as a yearling (25/61), and he’s now owned by Robert LaPenta and Madaket Stables. Brad started his work in Lexington at Keeneland back in April with two 3f breezes and then moved to Churchill for six more efforts (32 furlongs), the last two traveling five poles in less than one minute (5/40 & 4/23). In one of those, he trained heads up with Chopsticks who scored here on Friday for Cox. His two before those were half mile moves, and he did those in 47.4 & 47.8 seconds, respectively (4/49 & 10/21).

#4 Dazzle d’Oro (5/1) – As you likely have already figured, this colt is sired by Bolt d’Oro (16.0%). His dam won north of a quarter million dollars with five wins on the track from 20 starts. She has tossed three other foals. Today’s runner, trained by Tom Amoss (10/31, 32.3%), sold for $160K as a weanling in 2023 (4/11) and then last year brought $250K as a yearling (6/87). He’s been getting ready for his first start today by breezing seven times – the first five at KEE and the last two here under the Twin Spires (30 furlongs). Similar to the colt above, both of his last two works covered 5/8^th of a mile in less than 60 seconds, and one was from the gate (2/10 & 7/23). His final spin before shipping out from KEE was also impressive, as he went a half mile in 46.6 seconds from the gate to earn a huge bullet (1/79), and he just ran away from his workmate over the final 3/16^th of that drill.

#5 Seal Bay (6/1) – This fella is a pricey Munnings (15.5%) colt who was thrown by a winless (four starts) mare who has only produced one other foal that remains unnamed. $625K was the price of the winning bid for this colt as a yearling (3/71). He’s conditioned by Brendan Walsh (3/12, 25.0%). Eight drills up at Keeneland, all but two covering three poles (26 furlongs), show on his work tab. In his work on 5/29/25, he shot off a significant bullet, handling the distance in 35.2 seconds from the gate (1/64). Then on 6/12/25, two outings back, he bettered that by blasting 3f in 34.4 seconds (1/72). No videos of workouts were available.

#6 Bedeviled (10/1) – Asmussen’s entrant (24.1%) in the main field is a colt by Gun Runner (19.2%) out of a Tapit mare who was one for eight on the track with earnings of $72,000. She has only tossed one other foal of racing age, and this guy is a Winchell homebred. Seven breezes, the first four coming at Keeneland and the most recent three here at Churchill, totaling 28 furlongs. In his very first drill on 4/27/25, he showed potential moving a half furlong in 47.4 from the gate (2/57). In that work, he started two to three lengths behind his unnamed workmate, made a nice move to catch him, but then didn’t finish up well.

My Pick – Beating both Cox and Asmussen is kind of like beating Michael Jordan and Tom Brady, but I really like Amoss' colt. So, my pick is #4 Dazzle d’Oro. Bolt d’Oro is a trustworthy sire of babies, and I was super impressed with his move on 6/5/25 at Keeneland. Jose will be in the irons, and he’s been fantastic. Let’s give him a shot; I think we’ll get a reasonable price on the toteboard.