LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Robbie Medina worked with dozens of top-class Thoroughbreds in his 25 years under Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey, but he essentially started from scratch when opening his own stable some 2 1/2 years ago. It took Medina more than six months to win his first race – that one coming on the undercard of the Kentucky Derby held Sept. 5, 2020, at Churchill Downs – but as time passed, Medina found his rhythm. The 49-year-old Chicago native who grew up on the backstretches of Arlington, Sportsman’s, and Hawthorne recorded his first stakes victory when Play Action Pass captured the $400,000 Gun Runner on the closing-day card Wednesday at Kentucky Downs. “I really appreciated hearing from so many people afterward,” Medina said this week from his year-round base at the Blackwood training center in Versailles, Ky. “It was great.” :: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now! Medina might as well ride his momentum through Sunday at Churchill, where he’ll saddle a top contender in the only allowance on a 10-race card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. Take Care, a Will Farish homebred, is among an oversubscribed field of fillies and mares in race 9, a $127,000 first-level allowance going a one-turn mile. “She’s actually a pretty nice filly,” said Medina. “She had some issues as a 2-year-old, little things that kept her away. She came to me around the first of the year and gradually worked through those things and acted like she had some talent. “When I ran her the first time at Ellis Park, she actually ran better than it looked out of the one-hole. When I stretched her out to a mile,” in winning an Aug. 7 maiden race at Ellis, “she pretty much did everything right. She broke good, sat off a couple horses, and finished strong.” Take Care, a 3-year-old filly by Honor Code, earned an 82 Beyer Speed Figure in that 1 1/4-length triumph, the highest number among her Sunday rivals. She’ll have perennial leading jockey Tyler Gaffalione aboard breaking from post 2. Medina dealt with Farish and other high-profile owners such as Bill Parcells during his time under McGaughey. Parcells, the retired Hall of Fame football coach, owns Play Action Pass in the name of his August Dawn Farm. Parcells, said Medina, “has been like a mentor to me.” :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. “We get along great,” he said. “It’s just fun. Winning the stake, I’m more happy for him than anything.” Medina has about 16 active runners at Blackwood, along with “another 80 or so that belong to other trainers that I leg up and send along when they’re ready to ship out.” Aside from Take Care, major players in the Sunday feature also include Dame Joviale (post 6, James Graham), a two-back maiden winner during the Churchill spring meet for Rusty Arnold; Respectful (post 9, Ricardo Santana Jr.), who got a 78 Beyer in winning on debut last month at Ellis for Rudy Brisset; and Ice Orchid (post 11, Reylu Gutierrez), returning from a six-month-plus layoff after coming to hand nicely over the winter for John Ortiz. Conagher in regroup mode Conagher, the fleet 3-year-old who most recently was fourth in the Grade 1 Allen Jerkens on the Aug. 27 Travers card at Saratoga, is back at his Churchill base waiting on the next move from trainer Mike Tomlinson. The Jimmy Creed colt was to breeze this weekend in what would be his first work since the Jerkens, but Tomlinson said, “That’s only if we decide to run in the Harrods Creek,” a $275,000 race for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs next Saturday at Churchill. “If we don’t run there, we’ll wait for the Perryville” on Oct. 22 at Keeneland, he said. Conagher first drew widespread notice this spring by pulling a 73-1 upset in a Keeneland allowance with a 97 Beyer. He then showed that effort was no fluke in subsequent starts that included a Churchill allowance victory (104 Beyer), a runner-up finish in the Iowa Derby (96), and an easy win in the Aug. 1 Housebuster (95) at Colonial Downs prior to the Jerkens (91). “I’ve noticed that he seems to run better when we space his races out five to six weeks,” said Tomlinson. “Good thing is he came out of the Saratoga race in great shape. It’s hard to turn down some of these races, but I’m looking long-term. With some of the top sprinters retiring after this year, and us being 4 next year, it might put us in a pretty good spot.” The Harrods Creek is one of four stakes to be run Sept. 24 on the final night card of the year at Churchill. The others are the Grade 3, $275,000 Dogwood, the $275,000 Bourbon Trail, and the $160,000 Seneca. ◗ Trainer Paulo Lobo already was at Woodbine early Friday, eager to test his hot hand by running Ivar in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile the following afternoon. Lobo, based at the Thoroughbred training center in Lexington, Ky., had won with seven of his last 12 starters going into the Woodbine Mile, a streak that dated to Sept. 4 and included one win at Saratoga, three at Kentucky Downs, two at Horseshoe Indianapolis, and one at Belmont at the Big A.