Keeneland Barn Notes — Sunday, April 6

By Amy Owens —-

SUNDAY, APRIL 6 – OPENING DAY

Due to severe weather and significant rainfall in Central Kentucky, Keeneland has rescheduled the opening race days of its 15-day Spring Meet.

The race card originally scheduled for Friday, April 4 – which includes the $750,000 Central Bank Ashland (G1) – will take place Monday. The Saturday, April 5 race card – which features the $1.25 million Toyota Blue Grass (G1) – has been rescheduled to Tuesday.

Today now will serve as opening day of the Spring Meet.

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First post during the Spring Meet is 1 p.m. ET except for the April 25 closing day,
when the first race is at 12:30 p.m. to accommodate
the Keeneland April Selected Horses of Racing Age Sale after the races.

Click here for Keeneland’s 2025 Media Guide.

Click here for the Spring Meet stakes schedule, which includes links to the lists
of horses nominated to stakes and their past performances.

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FUTURE IS NOW TOPS FIELD OF 10 FOR NEXT SUNDAY’S GIANT’S CAUSEWAY
CENTRAL BANK ASHLAND ENTRANT LOOK FORWARD CAN KEEP MCCARTHY ON A ROLL
GALLOPING OUT
ATTENTION MEDIA: KEENELAND PHOTOSHELTER PROVIDES SPRING MEET DIGITAL ASSETS FOR EDITORIAL USE

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FUTURE IS NOW TOPS FIELD OF 10 FOR GIANT’S CAUSEWAY

The Estate of R. Larry Johnson’s Future Is Now headlines a field of 10 fillies and mares entered Sunday for the 28th running of the $350,000 Giant’s Causeway (G3) going 5½ furlongs on the grass.

The Giant’s Causeway will go as the eighth race on the nine-race Sunday, April 13 program with a 4:44 p.m. post time. First post is 1 p.m.

Trained by Mike Trombetta, Future Is Now is a two-time Grade 2 winner with the most recent of those victories coming in last fall’s Franklin (G2) here. A victory next week would make her the first horse to win the Franklin and come back the following spring and win the Giant’s Causeway.

Regular rider Paco Lopez has the mount from post 4.

NBS Stable and Elements Racing’s multiple stakes-winning Danse Macabre and Wertheimer and Frere’s Toupie loom as the major threats to Future Is Now.

Now trained by Christophe Clement, Danse Macabre will be making her 2025 debut and exit post 6 under Joel Rosario.

Toupie, trained by Graham Motion, enters the Giant’s Causeway off a victory in the Las Cienegas (G3) at Santa Anita in January. Flavien Prat, who was aboard for that victory, has the call Sunday from post 2.

CENTRAL BANK ASHLAND ENTRANT LOOK FORWARD
CAN KEEP MCCARTHY ON A ROLL

When Journalism rallied to win Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby (G1) for trainer Michael McCarthy, the colt cemented his position as the probable favorite for the 151st running of the $5 million Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve on the first Saturday in May.

On Monday afternoon, McCarthy could find himself with a starter for the $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) the day before the Derby when he sends Reddam Racing’s Look Forward postward in Keeneland’s 88th running of the $750,000 Central Bank Ashland (G1).

In addition to being the first Grade 1 race of 2025 for 3-year-old fillies, the Central Bank Ashland offers 200 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale to the first- through fifth-place finishers.

The Oaks is limited to the top 14 point earners and going into the Central Bank Ashland, the final prep on the Road to the Oaks, Look Forward has earned 15 points. That total puts her 24th on the list and needing a top-two finish to qualify for a spot in the Oaks starting gate.

Look Forward also was entered in Saturday’s Santa Anita Oaks (G2), which too carried 200 Oaks points, but McCarthy opted to send her to Keeneland.

“We thought the Keeneland surface would suit her front-running style,” McCarthy said, via text Sunday morning from his base at Santa Anita.

A graduate of the 2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Look Forward has won two of four races with a victory in the Santa Ynez (L) in January. In her most recent start, she lost all chance at the start in the Honeybee (G3) at Oaklawn Park on Feb. 23 and finished seventh of 13. Mario Gutierrez retains the mount for Monday’s race and will exit post 1.

With more rain in the forecast for Sunday and into the overnight hours, chances are Look Forward could encounter a less than fast track for the first time Monday.

“I think she would be fine on an off track assuming she breaks well and finds herself on the lead or close to it,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy, who won the 2020 Central Bank Ashland with Speech, will look to continue his momentum here Saturday when he sends out Bob Hope (G3) winner Bullard in the Stonestreet Lexington (G3).

GALLOPING OUT

Wathnan Racing’s Hit Show, winner of Saturday’s $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1), began his career at Keeneland in October 2022 when he won a maiden special weight race by 5¼ lengths. Last October, Hit Show returned to Keeneland and captured the Hagyard Fayette (G2). Hit Show is trained by Brad Cox.