Juvenile Sprint: Black Forza

Black Forza put O’Callaghan on Fast Track to Kentucky Downs

By Tim Wilkin for Kentucky Downs

FRANKLIN, Ky. (Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024) — A fast horse should have a fast name.

Trainer Michael O’Callaghan thinks he has a fast horse by the name of Black Forza.

Check. That sounds fast.

“The owner (Eleanora Kennedy) is Italian and she picked the name,” O’Callaghan said at the barn area at Kentucky Downs Wednesday morning. “He is almost black in color and Forza means force, or power in Italian.”

Bingo.

“I think it suits him very well,” O’Callaghan said with a smile. “Yes. Sounds fast.”

O’Callaghan is hoping that Black Forza runs fast in Sunday’s $1 million National Thoroughbred League Juvenile Sprint Stakes at 6 ½ furlongs.

Nick Tammaro, the Kentucky Downs oddsmaker, has installed Black Forza has the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

On a warm, sunny Wednesday morning, Black Forza was getting acquainted with the Kentucky Downs course with assistant trainer Lauryn Faulkner on board. The 35-year-old O’Callaghan watched Black Forza jog around the course.

Black Forza, a Kentucky-bred son of Complexity, will be making his fourth career start on Sunday. After breaking his maiden in his second start in Ireland, he traveled to Great Britain and won the Group 2 Markel Richmond Stakes by a half-length.

The horse arrived in the U.S. last week and arrived at Kentucky Downs Tuesday after spending time at Churchill Downs. O’Callaghan flew into Nashville Tuesday following a 12-hour journey from Ireland that saw him land in Chicago before moving on to Tennessee.

Wednesday was the first time he had ever seen Kentucky Downs. Call him impressed.

“It reminds me of home,” O’Callaghan said. “Guys were saying, ‘wait until you see it.’ It looks great. It’s better than I thought it would be. The barn area is lovely, clean and very airy. The horses are well taken care of.”

Of course, it’s more important that Black Forza like it and, after seeing him train, O’Callaghan said so far, so good.

“I thought he looked quite fresh and well,” O’Callaghan said. “That’s better than being the other way.”

Kentucky Downs got on his radar after the Markel Richmond Stakes. O’Callaghan said that Adrian Beaumont of the International Racing Bureau highlighted the Juvenile Sprint Stakes because of the purse – Black Forza being a Kentucky-bred can run for the full purse – and here they are.

“I have had Kentucky Downs in the back of my mind for a long time,” said O’Callaghan, who trains 40 horses in Ireland. “The prize money gets to a certain point, and you can’t ignore it. This race he is running in is worth four times what the traditional races back home are worth.”

O’Callaghan is quietly optimistic that Black Forza will run well on Sunday. Owner Kennedy, who is from New York but spends half the year in Ireland, is scheduled to fly in from the Emerald Isle on Friday.

Black Forza will be ridden Sunday by Irish jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, who was on board in the Markel Richmond Stakes.

“He has a lot of speed,” O’Callaghan said. “Natural speed, rather than raw, five-furlong speed. I do think he will stretch out in time.”