Classic Causeway Tops Overflow Field for Bryan Station

Kentucky West Racing and Clarke Cooper’s Classic Causeway, winner of the Belmont Derby (G1), heads a field of 12 3-year-olds plus four also-eligibles entered Wednesday for Saturday’s 18^th running of the $300,000 Bryan Station (G3).

Run at a mile on the grass, the Bryan Station will go as the eighth race Saturday afternoon with a 4:44 p.m. ET post time. First post is 1 p.m.

Trained by Kenny McPeek, Classic Causeway comes into Saturday’s race off a seventh-place finish in the Coolmore Turf Mile (G1) on Oct. 8, his first try against older runners. In his other grass tries, Classic Causeway finished third in the Saratoga Derby Invitational (G1) and the Jockey Club Derby Invitational (G3).

Brian Hernandez Jr. has the mount on Classic Causeway and will break from post five.

Three Grade 2 winners are in the field: Three Diamonds Farm and Deuce Greathouse’s Stolen Base, winner of the American Turf in May at Churchill Downs; Jeremy Brooks’ Wow Whata Summer, winner of the Penn Mile in June at Penn National; and Donegal Racing’s Ready to Purrform, winner of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in August at Saratoga.

The field for the Bryan Station, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Ready to Purrform (Joel Rosario, 122 pounds), Balnikhov (IRE) (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Fort Washington (James Graham, 118), Axthelm (Luis Saez, 118), Classic Causeway (Hernandez Jr., 122), Portfolio Company (Florent Geroux, 118), Double Clutch (Corey Lanerie, 118), Wit (Jose Ortiz, 118), Wow Whata Summer (Rey Gutierrez, 122), Fuerteventura (John Velazquez, 118), Stolen Base (Gerardo Corrales, 122) and Play Action Pass (Jose Lezcano, 118). Also-eligibles: Red Danger (Julien Leparoux, 118), Underdressed (Edgar Morales, 118), Churchtown (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Dakota Gold (Luis Saez, 118).