Keeneland Barn Notes — Sunday, April 16

By Amy Owens —-

SUNDAY, APRIL 16

Keeneland’s 15-day Spring Meet runs through Friday, April 28. First post is 1 p.m. ET.

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INTERSTATEDAYDREAM HEADLINES FIELD OF EIGHT FOR FRIDAY’S BAIRD DOUBLEDOGDARE
TWO-TIME DEFENDING CHAMPION WAR LIKE GODDESS TOPS 25 BEWITCH NOMINATIONS
IN ITALIAN (GB) KEEPS BROWN EXPRESS ROLLING IN JENNY WILEY
STONESTREET LEXINGTON WINNER FIRST MISSION TO POINT TO PREAKNESS
TWILIGHT GLEAMING (IRE) RETURNS TO THE RACES IN STYLE
BARBER ROAD, TARABI POST SATURDAY WINS
PROSPECTIVE FIELDS FOR ELKHORN, BEN ALI
SPRING MEET LEADERS
SPRING MEET WEEK 2 SPECIAL EVENTS

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INTERSTATEDAYDREAM HEADLINES FIELD OF EIGHT
FOR FRIDAY’S BAIRD DOUBLEDOGDARE

Flurry Racing Stables’ Interstatedaydream headlines a field of eight fillies and mares entered Sunday for Friday’s 28th running of the $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3) going 1 1/16 miles on the main track.

The Baird Doubledogdare will be the ninth race on Friday’s 10-race program with a 5:16 p.m. ET post time. First post on Friday is 1 p.m.

Malathaat won last year’s Baird Doubledogdare to kick off an Eclipse Award-winning campaign that concluded with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) here in November.

Trained by Brad Cox, Interstatedaydream won the George E. Mitchell Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico and the Indiana Oaks (G3) last year. Third in the Azeri (G2) behind Secret Oath and Clairiere in her most recent start, Interstatedaydream will be ridden by Florent Geroux and break from post position four.

In her lone Keeneland start, Interstatedaydream finished third in last year’s Central Bank Ashland (G1).

The other graded stakes winner in the field is Hidden Brook Farm and Black Type Thoroughbreds’ Hidden Connection.

Winner of the 2021 Pocahontas (G3) and twice graded stakes-placed, Hidden Connection is trained by Bret Calhoun and will be ridden by Rey Gutierrez from post seven.

Also figuring to attract attention is Team Valor International’s Green Up.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Green Up will be making her 2023 debut. She defeated Interstatedaydream in last year’s Cathryn Sophia Stakes at Parx before finishing fourth in the Cotillion (G1). Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount and will break from post two.

The field for the Baird Doubledogdare, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Traverse (Joel Rosario, 118 pounds), Green Up (Ortiz Jr., 118), Frost Point (Flavien Prat, 118), Interstatedaydream (Geroux, 118), Moon Swag (Luis Saez, 118), Music Street (Julien Leparoux, 118), Hidden Connection (Gutierrez, 118), Shotgun Hottie (Tyler Gaffalione, 118).

TWO-TIME DEFENDING CHAMPION WAR LIKE GODDESS
TOPS 25 BEWITCH NOMINATIONS

George Krikorian’s War Like Goddess, winner of the past two runnings of the Bewitch (G3), headlines a roster of 25 fillies and mares nominated to the 61st running of the $300,000 race to be contested over 1½ miles on the turf on April 28, closing day of the 15-day Spring Meet.

Trained by Bill Mott, War Like Goddess has earned more than $1.9 million while compiling a record of 13-9-1-2. In her final two races of 2022, she took on males and won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1) at Belmont at the Big A and finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) here in November.

Other marquee names among the nominations are Town and Country Racing’s Temple City Terror, winner of the Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) here last fall for trainer Brendan Walsh; Chris Walsh’s California Angel, winner of the JPMorgan Chase Jessamine (G2) here in 2021 for trainer George Leonard III; and the 1-2 finishers in the Orchid (G3) at Gulfstream Park on April 1 in Moyglare Stud Farm’s Amazing Grace (GER) for trainer Christophe Clement and Joseph Allen’s Personal Best for trainer Shug McGaughey.

IN ITALIAN (GB) KEEPS BROWN EXPRESS ROLLING IN JENNY WILEY

It appears that trainer Chad Brown has the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley pretty well figured out.

With the front-running 3-length victory by Peter Brant’s In Italian (GB) on Saturday, Brown has won the race six times since 2015. The three years he did not win the race, an entrant of his ran second.

“She’s very good, very bright this morning,” said Josh Flores, assistant to Brown, about In Italian. “It doesn’t look like the race took a lot out of her.”

In Italian gave Brant his third victory in the Jenny Wiley to go with Brown trainees Regal Glory in 2022 and Sistercharlie (IRE) in 2018. Brown also won with Ball Dancing in 2015 and Rushing Fall in 2019 and 2020.

Regal Glory, Sistercharlie and Rushing Fall all earned Eclipse Awards as North American champions

Flores said travel plans for In Italian are to be determined.

The travel plans for runner-up With The Moonlight (IRE) are more certain.

“She heads back to England Tuesday,” said Chris Connett, head traveling lad for trainer Charlie Appleby. “She ate up and came out of the race very well.”

The Godolphin homebred was easily second in the six-horse field but no threat to In Italian.

“She ran a huge race yesterday, but that was a very, very good filly that beat her,” Connett said. “She lost nothing in defeat.”

STONESTREET LEXINGTON WINNER FIRST MISSION
TO POINT TO PREAKNESS

Godolphin’s First Mission is scheduled to return to trainer Brad Cox’s main string at Churchill Downs on Monday following his victory in Saturday’s Stonestreet Lexington (G3).

In giving Cox his third victory in the Stonestreet Lexington, First Mission set himself up for a possible start in the Preakness (G1) at Pimlico on May 20.

“He has the potential to become our best 3-year-old,” said Blake Cox, assistant to his father. “He has been training lights out in the morning, and he is so smooth.”

First Mission, who was making his stakes debut Saturday, had to overhaul longtime leader and stakes veteran Arabian Lion to win by a half-length after being in tight quarters in the stretch run.

“At the three-eighths pole, I thought the other horse (Arabian Lion) was getting away from him,” Blake Cox said. “To be able to do that in just his third start against more experienced horses, that was impressive.”

Cox’s other Stonestreet Lexington winners were Owendale in 2019 and Tawny Port last year.

“I think First Mission can be better than Tawny Port and Owendale,” Cox said. “I was 17 when Owendale won here, and I flew all over the country with him. He was a very cool horse.”

That “very cool horse” earned more than $1.5 million in his career in which he ran third in the Preakness, had three Grade 3 victories and was graded stakes-placed another seven times.

Finishing third in the Stonestreet Lexington was Winchell Thoroughbreds’ Disarm.

Disarm picked up 6 points toward qualifying for the Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). The amount is enough to get him in the starting gate May 6 if his connections decide to enter. Disarm left for Churchill early Sunday.

TWILIGHT GLEAMING (IRE) RETURNS TO THE RACES IN STYLE

Stonestreet Stables’ Twilight Gleaming (IRE) returned to the races with authority Saturday by winning the Giant’s Causeway (L) by 1½ lengths.

“She ran great, and she is good this morning,” trainer Wesley Ward said.

The victory put Twilight Gleaming on a path to a possible return to Royal Ascot in England, where she ran second in the 2021 Queen Mary (G2).

Twilight Gleaming was making her first start since finishing fourth behind Caravel in the Franklin (now Grade 2) here in October. Caravel came back three weeks later to beat the boys in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1).

Ward also saddled Gayla Rankin’s Happy Soul in the Giant’s Causeway, and she finished fourth.

“I think I am going to keep her on the grass,” said Ward, who ruled out coming back in the $300,000 Unbridled Sidney (L) Presented by Sysco at Churchill Downs on May 5. “That race comes back awful quick for me.”

Brownwood Farm’s Querobin Dourada rallied to get second in the Giant’s Causeway as the longest price on the board at 87-1.

“She had been training very well, and she ran good,” trainer Paulo Lobo said of Querobin Dourada, adding that a next start is to be determined.

BARBER ROAD, TARABI POST SATURDAY WINS

WSS Racing’s Barber Road picked up his first victory since Nov. 10, 2021, by prevailing by a neck in Saturday’s seventh race for trainer John Ortiz.

Three times graded-stakes placed last year, Barber Road improved to 2-for-2 at Keeneland. He scored his first win here for a $30,000 claiming tag on Oct. 14, 2021.

“He still has his (allowance) conditions,” Ortiz said. “The money is good at Churchill Downs and the ($250,000) Pimlico Special (G3 on May 19 going 1 3/16 miles) is something to look at.”

In Race 11, LBD Stable, Manganaro Bloodstock and David Ingordo’s Grade 1-placed Tarabi came off more than a six-month layoff to post a determined neck victory for trainer Cherie DeVaux.

“It’s good to have her back,” DeVaux said. “She’s going to be a fun filly for the rest of the year.”

Owning a record of 7-3-3-1, Tarabi most recently was runner-up in the Dogwood (G3) at Churchill on Sept. 24 in her third start of 2022.

“She had a throat issue at Saratoga (after she won the Wilton Stakes) and then got hurt after she ran in the Dogwood,” DeVaux said of Tarabi, who finished third in the NetJets Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar to close her 2-year-old campaign.

Going forward, DeVaux is eyeing the $200,000 Bed o’ Roses (G2) going 7 furlongs at Belmont Park on June 17.

PROSPECTIVE FIELDS FOR ELKHORN, BEN ALI

Here are the prospective entries for upcoming stakes compiled by Stakes Coordinator Baley Hare.

Saturday, April 22 races. Entries taken Wednesday, April 19

$350,000 ELKHORN (G2) – Another Mystery (Block), Scarlet Fusion (Joe Sharp). Possible: Alex Joon (Lindsay Schultz), Camp Hope (Kenny McPeek), English Conqueror (Darwin Banach), Highest Honors (Chad Brown), Tiz the Bomb (McPeek).

$300,000 BEN ALI (G3) – Call Me Fast (Michael Puhich), Pioneer of Medina (Todd Pletcher), Skippylongstocking (Saffie Joseph Jr.), Trademark (Vicki Oliver). Possible: Happy American (Neil Pessin), Mr. Impossible (Simon Callaghan), Rattle N Roll (McPeek), Zozos (Brad Cox).