CLAIBORNE BREEDERS’

FUTURITY STAKES

(GRADE 1)

FREE Drop Billy clawed one step closer to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with a win in the Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity. Owned by Albaugh Family Stable, the son of Union Rags won his debut, then lost two hard ones at Saratoga, finishing second in the Grade 3 Sanford and Grade 1 Hopeful.

Trained by Dale Romans and ridden by Robby Albarado, Free Drop Billy rallied from sixth to a dominant win by four lengths over 47/1 Bravazo and Lone Sailor.

“We always thought the farther they go the better,” Romans said. “If you look at all his numbers on paper, every time they stretched a race a bit, he got a little bit better. Today I think we saw what he is really capable of.”

FLAMEAWAY

Chalk up another winner for the late great Scat Daddy as Flameaway took the Grade 3 Dixiana Bourbon on the Sunday Keeneland undercard. John Oxley’s two-year-old colt handled the switch from turf to slop with aplomb to win the $250,000 stakes by a nose. Trained by Mark Casse and ridden by Julien Leparoux, Flameaway has yet to try to the turf, winning over Woodbine’s synthetic surface in May and over a muddy track at Saratoga in August.