Silver Charm runs in Kentucky

The most popular gray race horse of last year starts on the road back in an effort to meet the most popular gray race horse of this year when Silver Charm returns to the racing wars in Saturday's Grade III Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

The centerpiece of the Kentucky Cup Day of Champions -- a five-race series that features four other divisional events on the card -- will renew for the fifth time at 1 1/8 miles.

Silver Charm will face a short but select field that includes Acceptable, Wild Rush, Ian's Thunder and Pacificbounty. Trainer Bob Baffert gave the final go-ahead for his wounded handicap star after a sparkling half-mile work at Santa Anita on Tuesday morning.

With regular rider Gary Stevens in the irons, Charm stopped the clocks in :46 seconds flat registering the fastest move of 34 workers at the distance. After the lonely 7:30 a.m. work, jockey Stevens said, "He worked awesome", prompting the rider to reminisce, "It reminded me of the way he was in the spring."

Stevens, as well as Baffert and owners Bob and Beverly Lewis, have been waiting patiently for Charm to tell them he has recovered from the worst effort of his racing career. The son of Silver Buck hasn't raced since a last-place finish in the San Diego Handicap at Del Mar on July 25. It was the first time the 1997 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner had ever finished worse than second in 15 lifetime starts.

Silver Charm had started this year with aspirations of leading the handicap division after victories in the San Fernando and Strub Stakes in the series for 4-year-olds at Santa Anita. But, a bruised foot kept him from a first showdown with older rival Gentlemen in the Santa Anita Handicap, a race Gentlemen lost, and the Dubai World Cup was scheduled as a replacement.

Silver Charm outraced Europe's Swain to win the late-March duel in the Saudi desert, but returned much worse for the wear. A loss in the subsequent Stephen Foster Handicap mid-summer at Churchill Downs lead to the Del Mar debacle.

Baffert was baffled and the trainer vowed to give Charm all the time he needed to return to form.

The Kentucky Cup Classic is a "must-win" pivotal race if Charm has any desires of meeting Skip Away in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 7.

Baffert is making no plans beyond Saturday's Turfway engagement, but, if Silver Charm is "back" then a start in Oak Tree's Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita next month -- with a winning performance -- could punch the Classic ticket to Louisville and the long-awaited one-time marquee meeting with this year's most popular gray.

Baffert shoots for a repeat Kentucky Cup Classic victory having worn last year's edition with Semoran. Silver Charm will try and join other Triple Crown K-Cup winners Tabasco Cat (1994) and Thunder Gulch (1995).

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