Bankit Looking To Avenge Stablemate in Springboard Mile

Remington Park

A winner of the Sleepy Hollow Stakes at Belmont Park in October, Bankit is one of the favorites for this weekend’s Springboard Mile after a five race campaign that saw him win at two of New York’s biggest tracks.

The colt will be working to go one better than stablemate Combatant, who finished second in the Springboard Mile in 2017. Combatant went on to run in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby last May. Already having five starts under his belt, Bankit is coming into the race in fine form according to co-owner Winchell Thoroughbreds’ manager David Fiske, who says there are similarities between the two colts.

“Bankit is doing great, he’s had a remarkably mishap free 2-year-old year. He is very sound and very happy and he kind of likes doing what he’s doing. He’s doing good,” Fiske said. “They’re sort of similar in that they’re both real sound and kind of workmanlike and there’s nothing real flashy about them.”

Both are also owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and Willis Horton Racing, a partnership that came about when the pair raced champion fillies Untapable and Take Charge Brandi.

“The story behind [the formation of the partnership] was Willis’ grandson Ben got in touch with Ron [Winchell], I think it was back when Take Charge Brandi and Untapable were running. They got in touch with us and we couldn’t do anything with them on that front but kept in touch. Whenever they were in town we’d go out to have a drink or dinner or something. When it came around to the yearling sales, we just put a proposal up and they were game to get in on it and we’ve done that for a couple years.”

A $260,000 2-year-old purchase at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company March Sale of Two-Year-Olds In Training, Bankit broke his maiden in his second start, romping by 6 ¾ lengths at Saratoga.

His connections had originally eyed the Remsen at Aqueduct but due to a variety of reasons, chose the Springboard Mile instead.

“We had some other horses for the Kentucky Jockey Club, we seem to have a lot of stakes winning- and stakes placed-two year old colts this year,” Fiske said. “Not that I’m complaining and we’re very fortunate to be in that position but trying to find spots to run them and not run them over the top of one another and that’s just ours, Steve’s got a bunch of other nice 2-year-old colts as well. The $400,000 [purse] is attractive, Steve’s got a division at Remington, Darren [Fleming’s] there. All that works out, it’s not really out of the way for us.”

Second favorite on the morning line at odds of 3-1, Bankit is one of five entries for trainer Steve Asmussen, who flies in Ricardo Santana Jr. for the ride. Currently leading the Remington Park trainer’s standings by a wide margin, Fiske credits Asmussen’s attention to detail as a reason the trainer is so successful around the country.

“He’s got Darren and Scott [Blasi], and Toby [Sheets] in New York, Mitch [Dennison] who’s down in New Orleans and Galen [Pruitt]. A lot of those guys have been with him forever. They’ve got a system when a horse leaves the barn and gets on a van, there’s certain things they do before they leave and there’s certain things they do on the other end and it’s done the same way everywhere. It’s not that different for the horses. I don’t think it’s all that much different than any of the other guys like Chad Brown or Todd Pletcher or Bob Baffert, any of them. I think those guys, two things they have in common are they’re all real smart and they’re all fixated on details.”

A Kentucky Derby points race with 10 points to the winner, the Springboard Mile is race 11 on the card with a post time of 7:52 p.m. Central.