US racing tips: Shane Ketteridge has two tips in the big races at Churchill Downs

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Ottoman Fleet
8.52pm Churchill Downs
2pts win

Disarm
11.03pm Churchill Downs
2pts win

Wise Dan remains the only dual winner of the Firecracker Handicap, which was renamed the Wise Dan Stakes in his honour back in 2016, and this year the race could be won by a European-trained horse for the first time.

The Charlie Appleby-trained globetrotter Ottoman Fleet looks to have an outstanding chance on the form book and he will take some beating with Flavien Prat on board. 

The son of Sea The Stars has recorded form figures of 1321 in four Graded races in the United States, including an authoritative last-time-out victory in the Grade 3 Arlington Stakes over this course and distance.

His odds are likely to be on the skinny side, but he is a solid selection given the fact he beat his nearest market rival, Chasing The Crown, comfortably in that win here at the start of the month.

The Grade 1 Stephen Foster Stakes is a ‘win and you’re in’ event, offering the winner an automatic berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, and Brad Cox will be looking for back-to-back wins with First Mission after taking this with West Will Power last year.

Steve Asmussen has won this on two previous occasions with Curlin (2008) and Gun Runner (2017) and he bids for a third win with the highly promising Disarm.

Gun Runner went on to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar after taking this and his son Disarm is in a similar mould. He was fourth in the Kentucky Derby last year before taking a Grade 3 at Ellis Park and then finishing an outstanding second to Arcangelo in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

The feeling is that he is going to step forward from that as a four-year-old this season and, after a routine win in an allowance optional claimer here last month, it would be no surprise to see him stamp his authority on the older horse division.

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