It wasn’t easy but Burnham Square gets the job done in Chorleywood

Burnham Square did indeed make it three straight stakes wins, capturing the Chorleywood on Saturday at Churchill Downs, but it was by no means easy.

After winning the Grade 2 Elkhorn by almost 10 lengths and the Grade 3 Louisville by nearly six, Burnham Square prevailed by a neck in the $217,500 Chorleywood, a listed race.

Chapman’s Peak, who’d finished a half-length behind Burnham Square going 1 1/16 miles in a Gulfstream Park allowance race 3 1/2 months ago, made Burnham Square earn this win at odds of 1-9.

Jockey Axel Concepcion urged Chapman’s Peak forward leaving the gate in the three-turn, 1 3/8-mile Chorleywood, crossing in front of rail-drawn Burnham Square before the first bend. Chapman’s Peak’s run to the lead kindled Burnham Square’s competitive flame – you could see the horse put ears forward and try to engage, and jockey Brian Hernandez in post-race comments noted that his mount had become a little aggressive on the first turn.

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Hernandez didn’t fight Burnham Square, easing outside Chapman’s Peak and onto the lead going past the finish line for the first time, the tempo even through a half in 50.40 and six furlongs in 1:15.62. Into the final turn and Burnham Square still went comfortably, in control, but Concepcion and Chapman’s Peak weren’t just going to give the race away. Concepcion asked for more past the three-furlong marker, and Chapman’s Peak surged forward, drawing alongside Burnham Square at the quarter pole, running stride for stride with him in upper stretch, poking his nose in front.

Burnham Square cornered for home a couple paths off the fence, but past the three-sixteenths Hernandez took him down to the fence as Chapman’s Peak drifted out about one lane farther, leading by a narrow margin at the stretch call, but by the sixteenth pole, rising to the task, Burnham Square had edged back to the lead. He was going slightly away at the finish and quickly opened a huge lead galloping out around the clubhouse turn. This horse, as trainer Ian Wilkes long has contended, never gets tired.

“They made him run today,” Hernandez said. “He really had to sprint home.”

Sprint he did. Burnham Square, cutting back from two 1 1/2-mile contests, went his fifth quarter-mile in 22.71, by far the fastest pace of the race, and finished up with a furlong in 11.51.

Dancin in Da’nile checked in third but was 4 1/2 lengths out of second. Burnham Square clocked 2:13.96 over a firm course and paid a pittance, $2.26.

Wilkes trains the 4-year-old for his breeder, Whitham Thoroughbreds, and Burnham Square is by Liam’s Map out of Linda, by Scat Daddy. He now has won 6-14 races and is 5-3-2-0 on turf, but higher hurdles await. Connections plan to cut Burnham Square back to 1 1/4 miles for the Arlington Million on Aug. 1 at Colonial Downs. Wilkes believes Burnham Square still has more to give, despite the blowout scores in his two previous races – and he’ll need to give it stepping up to Grade 1 competition.

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