Firecracker renamed for Wise Dan
By Marty McGee
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for their 2016 spring meet, with the most notable change being the renaming of the former Firecracker Handicap in honor of Wise Dan, the Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
The Wise Dan remains a Grade 2, $200,000 race for 3-year-olds and upward on the turf, with its distance now lengthened from a mile to 1 1/16 miles. It has been moved from closing weekend of the meet to the June 18 Stephen Foster card.
Wise Dan won the 2011 and 2013 renewals of the Firecracker during a career in which he earned $7.55 million. The 9-year-old gelding was retired last fall to trainer Charlie LoPresti’s Forest Lane Farm just outside of Lexington, Ky. LoPresti said in a Churchill release thar having a race named for Wise Dan “means so much to us.”
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