Stable Notes by Mike Ahrens: Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Trainer Bret Vickery has been pretty quiet this meet, to say the least.

"Things started out pretty slow," he said, adding that "I only brought 10 head over this year" to make a total of 23 starts thus far compared to 42 starts in 2019. But one horse who was highly thought of as a two year old by Vickery and others "is gonna pull us out."

Elm Creek Khrome will run in the All American Derby on Sunday after finishing second in the last trial of the day for that race. Last year the good-looking black gelding made it to the finals for the All American Futurity final with just a maiden race and the trial under his belt, and finished ninth. This year he is a little more seasoned having run in the Ruidoso Derby trial, Ruidoso Invitational Stakes where he was bumped at the start and carried out, and an allowance race where he exchanged several bumps during the running, prior to his All American Derby trial. In that event he got a relatively clean trip besides a light bump at the start to finish second at 33-1, being all but ignored by the bettors.

"He needed the first outs this year and he seems to be peaking at the right time. He's not real sharp from the gate but he's got a big finish and loves the 440 distance. He gets kind of intimidated though and doesn't want to run through traffic, so the draw is going to be pretty important."

This is a good horse who just needs a clean path to run to his potential and should be moving well near the wire, not to be overlooked.