Willis Horton Racing and Whisper Hill Farm\u2019s Hanshin Stakes (Listed) winner Will Take It has been on a brief layoff since his June 29 triumph at Churchill Downs, and trainer Dallas Stewart hopes the freshening sets him up for a strong fall campaign starting in Saturday\u2019s $400,000 Ack Ack (G3).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe aimed at the Ack Ack since winning the Hanshin in late June,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cHe was able to get a nice training break for a few weeks over the summer, and we\u2019ve geared him up for this spot and hopefully another big race the first weekend in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cbig race\u201d Stewart referred to is the Breeders\u2019 Cup Dirt Mile scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 1 at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
Before the Hanshin, Will Take It had been a model of consistency through the winter and spring with three allowance wins and two runner-up finishes. The Hanshin marked his first stakes try on dirt since finishing ninth in the 2024 Arkansas Derby (G1).<\/p>\n
Stewart said Cristian Torres will ride in place of the injured Brian Hernandez Jr. in the Ack Ack. They drew post No. 2 and were listed as the 7-2 third choice on the morning line.<\/p>\n
Also entered in the Ack Ack is Table 38 Racing and KatieRich Stables\u2019 This Is Uscar, who was cross-entered in a Sunday allowance. The colt schooled in the paddock Thursday morning, and trainer Jordan Blair said he is still weighing his options in which race the colt will run.<\/p>\n
The Ack Ack is part of a stakes doubleheader Saturday with the $500,000 Lukas Classic (G2). The Ack Ack goes as Race 8 at 4:26 p.m. (all times Eastern), followed two races later by the Lukas Classic at 5:29 p.m. First post is 12:45 p.m.<\/p>\n
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The field for the Ack Ack Stakes from the rail out (with jockey, trainer, and morning line odds):<\/p>\n
Most Wanted (Irad Ortiz Jr., Brad Cox, 6-5)<\/p>\n
Will Take It (Torres, Stewart, 7-2)<\/p>\n
Surly Furious (Ben Curtis, Glenn Wismer, 30-1)<\/p>\n
This Is Uscar (Edgar Morales, Blair, 15-1)<\/p>\n
Tumbarumba (Tyler Gaffalione, Brian Lynch, 4-1)<\/p>\n
Indispensable (Luis Saez, John Sadler, 3-1)<\/p>\n
Three Technique (Florent Geroux, Jason Cook, 30-1)<\/p>\n
Who Dey (Luan Machado, Tommy Drury Jr., 15-1)<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by Paulick Report<\/a> on Sep 25, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willis Horton Racing and Whisper Hill Farm\u2019s Hanshin Stakes (Listed) winner Will Take It has been on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[69730,72961,29784,9464,72959,64129,72960,3004,101,56,54,55,72962],"class_list":{"0":"post-160413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-ack-ack","9":"tag-ack-ack-stakes","10":"tag-brian-hernandez-jr","11":"tag-churchill-downs","12":"tag-cristian-torres","13":"tag-dallas-stewart","14":"tag-hanshin-stakes","15":"tag-racing","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-willis-horton-racing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}