Crouch a kettleone winner

Tom Crouch, whose claim to fame in the Standardbred sport came via Kentuckiana Farms, is now hoping to make his mark with Thoroughbreds as well, starting his highly-regarded 4-year-old filly Kettleoneup in the $50,000 Pippin at Oaklawn Park Saturday afternoon.

Bred and owned by Crouch, of Lexington, Ky., Kettleoneup has won three of her last four starts by a combined 31 ½ lengths, with her only loss being a second-place finish to the Grade 1-winning Sugar Shake. She comes into the Pippin off an eight-length win at Oaklawn Jan. 28.

Kettleoneup will have her work cut out for her in her first-ever stakes event as she’ll be taking on the likes of D Fine Okie, who has won four straight, and the multiple stakes-winning Plaid. She’ll also be stretching out to the distance of 1 1/16-miles for the first time.

“She can run all the way from Lexington to Cincinnati, so the distance won’t bother her,” Crouch said with a laugh to harnessracing.com Friday morning from Florida, shortly before boarding a plane to fly him to Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark.

Kettleoneup broke her maiden last September at Mountaineer, winning by 11 lengths in a one-mile race. Back at Mountaineer the following month, she won a conditioned allowance by 12 ½ lengths. That led to her second-place finish behind Sugar Shake in an allowance race at Churchill Downs in November, before her Oaklawn win Jan. 28.

Mike Tomlinson trains Kettleoneup, with Terry Thompson given the mount.

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