Huntstown has been a stakes contender all his life in his native Indiana. However, he had been away from stakes competition for the past two seasons. He returned in a big way Wednesday, Sept. 3, taking the title in the 15th running of the $100,000 AJ Foyt Stakes at Indiana Grand.
Starting from post five in the bulky field of 12, Huntstown got out of the gate well for jockey Rodney Prescott and had good early positioning as Wholelotachocolate and Channing Hill got the first call on the inside tracked closely by Bizerk and Orlando Mojica from the outside.
Flowerpecker and Jon Court also got into the early chase for the lead heading into the turn. The tightly bunched group had issues in mid-pack spreading horses wide around the turn, including one of the race favorites Toss of Fate and Malcolm Franklin.
Down the backstretch, Bizerk established himself as the pace setter with Flowerpecker close to his outside. Huntstown was in the second group right off the leaders and he was waiting patiently for the best moment to attack the front in the one and one-sixteenth mile turf race. In the turn, Prescott knew it was time to move the eight-year-old gelding into a familiar spot where he could show his best stride and he did, moving to the top in the stretch and holding strong all the way to the wire for the win by one length over Rocky Rush and Santo Sanjur, who closed well for second. Mr. Gary D and Ezequiel Lara also closed for third.
Going unnoticed by the betting public brought in a return of $23.80, $11.40, $7.00 across the board for Huntstown, who is trained by Kim Hammond. Hammond claimed the grey gelding earlier this summer at Indiana Grand for $12,500 and now has two wins with the Unbridled Energy gelding who topped the $500,000 mark with his win in the AJ Foyt Stakes.
“This horse has been doing great,” said Prescott. “He ran a big race last time out and I’ve watched this horse race for a long time. He competed in the top level and in some of those races, he got in big time trouble and still did well. I felt that getting the right timing and if he felt good today, he would be good enough to win. And today, he was good enough.”
Huntstown recorded his third stakes win and his 11th overall in 55 career starts. Jane Woods and David Neiman of Willowbrook Stables now own Huntstown.
“We were confident but leery,” said Neiman. “We are very happy with the results. Kim said she wanted to run him in here and show that this horse can still do it, and he did.”
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