Claiming Crown: “This will be our KY Derby,” Loy Says of Iowa Standout Happy Strike

Happy Strike cost $6,000 as a yearling purchase at Keeneland’s 2022 September sale. At the same auction, Point Dume cost $450,000.

The two horses and 12 others square off in Saturday’s $200,000 Jewel, the most lucrative of the eight races comprising the $1.1 million Claiming Crown Saturday at Churchill Downs. As the late, great D. Wayne Lukas used to say: “People have opinions; horses have the facts.” Once the starting gate opens, the price paid for horses as youngsters has little relevance.

“That’s exactly right. Price doesn’t matter. This horse isn’t 100-percent correct,” said Dewaine Loy, owner and trainer of Happy Strike, who comes into the Jewel off four straight wins at Prairie Meadows in Iowa. “He kind of toes in a little bit. This horse would have brought a lot more money (otherwise). That’s kind of what we look for at the sale. You get a horse that’s well-bred, a little crooked-legged, they sell for a lot cheaper, because the guys who are going to spend a lot of money want a horse that’s 100-percent correct. And they may not hold up as long as this horse.”

“It just goes to show that every horse, when given the right situation and put in the right spot, can be a star,” said David Bushey, managing partner of Bush Racing Stable, Point Dume’s ownership that claimed the well-bred gelding for $40,000 four races ago at Penn National. “That’s the beauty of the Claiming Crown. You’ve got $4,000 horses and you’ve got $40,000 horses.”

And in this case, a $400,000-plus horse.

Both Happy Strike and Point Dume are giving their owners their first Claiming Crown starter. Loy and Bushey use similar analogies to describe what it means to be in the annual celebration of American racing’s workhorses that fill out the weekday cards outside the spotlight. But Saturday at Churchill Downs, the host for the third time in four years, about 100 current and former claimers will be front and center, with extensive coverage from TwinSpires and FanDuel TV. Tomorrow’s weather-related cancelation of Del Mar’s races will only add attention to the Claiming Crown, whose full fields provide terrific wagering opportunities.

Churchill Downs’ first post is 1 p.m. ET, with the Claiming Crown going as races 4-11. The $300,000, Grade 3 Chilukki Stakes for fillies and mares also is featured, positioned as the third race.

“We aren’t going to have a Kentucky Derby horse, I’m sure — not buying them for $6,000,” Loy said. “This will be our Kentucky Derby.”

Making the Claiming Crown fulfills a long-time dream for Bush Racing, which was started in 2004 by Bryan Bushey, David’s dad. Point Dume has won his last two starts, a starter-allowance race for horses that had raced at Delaware Park in 2025 (in which Point Dume defeated Jewel contender Cadet Corps) and a $75,000 stakes at Parx.

“We started as a one-horse stable; we’re 15 horses now,” David Bushey said. “The Claiming Crown is kind of a bucket-list thing for us. I went to Gulfstream for five years for the Claiming Crown, standing, watching as a racing fan, envisioning at some point we’d have a horse there. This is a dream for us.”

Point Dume is a son of international stallion sensation Into Mischief and out of a Malibu Moon. He was purchased as a yearling by the deep-pocketed partnership of SF Bloodstock, Starlight Racing and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables and went to Bob Baffert. Those owners buy and compete in racing’s highest echelons and sent Point Dume to a Mid-Atlantic trainer after he failed to hit the board in three starts in California. He was promptly claimed out of a $30,000 maiden-claiming race. Fast forward 18 races, and Bush Racing got Point Dume for the $40,000, a hefty claiming price at Penn National.

“For people who do what we do, this is like the Breeders’ Cup,” David Bushey said. “Like many of us, we’re just blue-collar owners. We’re never going to have a horse in the Breeders’ Cup. We don’t buy 2-year-olds; we don’t have 3-year-olds. So having a horse like this in the Claiming Crown on such a big stage is just really important for us.

“Getting here is important. Winning would be icing on the cake.”

Loy bought Happy Strike, a son of champion sprinter Runhappy, earlier this year off the previous owner, who was taking a pause from the sport. Happy Strike was one of three horses — the other two have yet to run — that Loy acquired for a total of $38,000. Moving with Loy’s stable from Oaklawn Park to Iowa’s Prairie Meadows, the gelding has won four straight heading into the 1 1/8-mile Jewel, most recently an open allowance race that left Happy Strike 7 for 14 in his career.

“We thought we had a nice colt,” Loy said. “It’s just hard to tell. He’s real lazy in the mornings as far as training. So he really surprised us. The first (five) races he ran, he won two of them. He just got good. He still runs with his ears kind of pricked. We haven’t found the best of him yet, I don’t think. We’re going to have to have it Saturday.”

Taylor Loy, the trainer’s wife, is an integral part of the stable, the two handling all the care for Happy Strike on the road. Dewaine said Taylor talked him into running in the Claiming Crown.

“I said, ‘You know what? This is a good chance. My horse is really good; we’ll give it a try,’” Loy said. “We own him, so I’m not going to get fired after it… He’s made enough money this year to give him a chance, so why not?”

Claiming Crown by the (auction) numbers

Most expensive auction purchases
Unlimitedpotential (Rapid Transit) $750,000 OBS 2yo
Point Dume (Jewel) $450,000 KEE Sept yearling
Nation (Rapid Transit) $385,000 FT Saratoga yearling
Miacomet (Rapid Transit) $360,000 FT Saratoga yearling
High Front (AE Canterbury) $350,000 I 4yo FTK HRA

Least expensive auction purchases
Pink Rose (Glass Slipper) $3,000 KEE Nov weanling
I Feelucky Tonite (Iron Horse) $3,500 KEE Sept yearling
Illini (Express) $4,000 FTK Oct yearling
Lucky Ana (Glass Slipper) $5,000 FTK Oct yearling
Happy Strike (Jewel) $6,000 KEE Sept yearling

Crichton seeks Emerald repeat with Echo Lane; has Bernin Hot in Jewel

Trainer Rohan Crichton won his second Claiming Crown race last year with Echo Lane in the $175,000 Emerald. He’s seeking a repeat this year back at Churchill Downs and also has Bernin Hot in the $200,000 Jewel.

Echo Lane is one of three returning Claiming Crown champions, the others being Concrete Glory (Ready’s Rocket Express) and Jubilant Joanie (Glass Slipper). Only four horses have won two Claiming Crown races: Royal Posse, Al’s Dearly Bred, Antrim County and Time for Trouble, who returns to the Iron Horse for the third time in four years while seeking to become the first three-time winner.

“Echo Lane is training really well,” Crichton said by phone. “We had this race on the calendar very early. We’ve sat on races the last two months. I think he likes to fire fresh. We kind of followed the same path as we did before the Claiming Crown last year, and he did really well.”

Last year as a 3-year-old, Echo Lane came into the Emerald off a 2 1/2-month break after he finished a good third in the Grade 3 Virginia Derby won by Deterministic, one of this year’s top turf horses and an earner of almost $2 million. Echo Lane has been extremely consistent this year, with two wins, a second, three thirds and a close fourth in seven starts. Off a Churchill Downs allowance victory, the Florida-bred colt was third in Colonial Downs’ Aug. 21 automatic Emerald qualifier after being unprepared for the break.

“He’s matured; he’s gotten stronger,” Crichton said. “I thought he was kind of unlucky at Colonial Downs last time at the start. If you look at the start, his head was turned inwards.”

Luis Saez, who has ridden Echo Lane most of this year and in last year’s Claiming Crown, is back aboard after missing the Colonial race. Saez ranks No. 2 in Claiming Crown wins at 13, three fewer than career leader Paco Lopez, who isn’t riding at Churchill Downs. With seven mounts, Saez has a shot to gain ground on Lopez for the record.

“I didn’t know that,” Crichton said of Saez being second all-time at the Claiming Crown, adding with a laugh, “and I’m pretty sure Luis didn’t know that, either.

“Luis is a great rider. He fits both of my horses. He likes to be more forwardly placed. He’s a very aggressive, strongly handling rider, which the horses appreciate.”

Bernin Hot brings in three wins in a second in his four races for Crichton, including two victories at Churchill Downs. The defeat was a second in the Claiming Crown prep at Colonial Downs.

“He’s certainly tough and gives his best,” Crichton said. “When we claimed him (for $50,000 May 9 at Churchill), I guess the light bulb was just going on. I thought he ran really well the day we claimed him. He’s just gone from strength to strength.

“I thought in his race at Colonial, he also was unlucky because of the one-turn nine-furlong race. If you look at it, he’s really gunning almost from the gate. He was running out pretty much full tilt down the backstretch, and they were flying home. He had every reason to get caught that day on a horse (Cadet Corps) he’s facing again. But the two turns help him, allow him to settle into the first turn. He’ll be able to get that 24, 48 fractions in. If you look at the fractions at Colonial, that was a really rich first half (46 4/5). It will be interesting to see the rematch.”

Crichton’s main base is Florida, but he’s becoming an increasing presence in Kentucky, where he has stalls at Churchill Downs’ nearby Trackside Training Center.

“These Claiming Crown races are just really good for me, for the industry,” Crichton said. “Claiming horses are the biggest part of my barn. To be able to participate on this day is just excellent. These are such good races. I was handicapping and trying to think what Luis’ strategy might be. It’s difficult. There’s speed in both races, come-from-behind horses. Horses that are proven at Churchill, I’m hoping that’s a key factor. We’re banking on that.”

Money Run: First or nowhere in the Iron Horse?

Money Run is an intriguing horse in Saturday’s $100,000 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Kent Stirling Memorial. The 5-year-old gelding seems to either win wire-to-wire or to lose by double-digit margins. But there’s more to the story, says owner Brent Malmstrom.

Malmstrom certainly wasn’t thinking Claiming Crown — especially not a race where the requirement was a horse had run for $8,000 or cheaper — when he claimed Money Run for $40,000 1 1/2 years ago at Churchill Downs. Money Run won easily that day. Shipped to California to trainer Peter Miller, he lost by 13 1/2, 44 1/2, 22 3/4 and 20 1/2 lengths in his first four races for the new barn, working his way down from entry-level allowance to $40,000 claiming to $16,000 to the $8,000.

“After Del Mar, I gave him some time off,” Malmstrom said. “Physically there was nothing wrong with him. I just think as an older horse who had been claimed a few times, been through various barns, he just needed a little break. When we got him back, I wasn’t sure he wanted to be a racehorse anymore. He just wasn’t showing the same level of intensity he had when we first got him.

“The biggest thing is we kind of changed his whole routine. We stretched him out, routing him instead of sprinting him. We took blinkers off of him, changed his equipment and he found a happy place. He likes to route. With his tactical speed, once he gets out front, he is very, very difficult to pass.”

Malmstrom certainly didn’t have to worry about anyone taking Money Run the day he won the $8,000 claiming race at Del Mar. He followed that by taking a first-level allowance at Los Alamitos.

“Then we thought, let’s play in the Claiming Crown, so I flew him to Keeneland,” for a starter-allowance race, he said.

Money Run never came close to the lead, finishing seventh by a total of 12 3/4 lengths. But Malmstrom says the horse had legitimate excuses.

“It was pouring down rain that day,” he said. “I think he got a little agitated with the rain and crowd, so he missed the break terribly. Kind of the race was over before it ever started. He was nine, 10 lengths out at the start. But he ran, did his thing, still passed some horses. It wasn’t a horrible effort, and we thought, ‘You know what? We’ll still stick with our plan to run in the Claiming Crown and see what happens.’

“He’s one-dimensional in the sense that he wants to be on the lead. And when he’s on the lead, he’s the epitome of what I consider King Kong. When he’s not on the lead and he’s getting pressured and getting mud kicked in his face, he’s like, ‘Yeah, this is not really my thing.’ If everything goes his way, he’s a happy, happy camper. He’s tough to beat.”

Money Run is 5-1 in the morning line, with 2024 runner-up Freedom Road the tepid 7-2 favorite and 2022-2023 winner Time for Trouble 4-1.