Note for handicappers playing the Churchill card....as well as those compiling speed figures for the races...rain began about 15 minutes before the fifth race, changing the track from muddy to sloppy, and possibly changing the speed of the track.
With more rain expected late this afternoon, the track should only become sloppier.
Valerius took the fifth race ($11), the first of the races in the slop, despite easing himself up in the final sixteenth after making the lead in the race for maiden $50,000 claimers.
Handicappers might want to forgive the unplaced effort of first-time starter E T Go, who ran loose behind the gate before the start.