With two scratches possible in Thursday’s $38,600 Cash Caravan Stakes, Jess Rocket Man figures to be the prohibitive favorite in the 440-yard race restricted to quarter horses bred in Minnesota. Trainer Jason Olmstead indicated that he likely will scratch 4-year-old Jess Rocket Man’s older full brother Dickey Bob and younger full brother Averys Rocket, all owned and bred by Lunderborg LLC, making the Thursday feature a four-horse field. The three are by sire Apollitical Jess out of the Pyc Paint Your Wagon mare Paint Or More.
Jess Rocket Man, Canterbury’s 2021 quarter horse of the meet, has won nine of 19 career races including the Grade 3 Keokuk at Prairie Meadows on July 23. He will be ridden in the Cash Caravan by leading jockey Edwin Escobedo. Olmstead, the meet’s leading trainer, has won the stake the past four years when it was run at 400 yards, twice with Dickey Bob.
Should Olmstead scratch the two runners, the remaining field would include Holy Storm, an 870-yard specialist, Myownersbroke, winner of two races from 20 starts, and Trippin Guns, a 3-year-old that has won his past two starts. Trippin Guns is trained by Briannah McDaniel who has a family connection to the Cash Caravan Stakes. Her father, trainer Asher Murray, won the stake in 2000, 2001 and 2002 with gelding Cracklin Cash.
First post on Thursday is 5:12 p.m. with the Cash Caravan running as the tenth and final race at 9:40 p.m.
