Keeneland Barn Notes — Thursday, Oct. 17
By Amy Owens —-
THURSDAY, OCT. 17
Keeneland’s 17-day Fall Meet concludes Saturday, Oct. 26, with racing
Wednesdays through Sundays. Post time for the first race each day is 1:05 pm. ET.
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• ELYSEA’S WORLD HEADS FIELD OF 13 FOR SUNDAY’S ROOD & RIDDLE DOWAGER
• INDIAN PRIDE LOOKS TO CONTINUE STRONG LINE OF FAMILY SUCCESS IN SATURDAY’S LEXUS RAVEN RUN
• MINUS COVFEFE, PESSIN HOPES BELL’S THE ONE REBOUNDS IN LEXUS RAVEN RUN
• BALTAS READIES MULTIPLE SHOTS FOR WEEKEND STAKES
• GALLOPING OUT
• CLOSING-DAY STAKES PROBABLES
• BREEDERS’ CUP CANDIDATES STABLED AT KEENELAND
• FALL MEET SPECIAL EVENTS
• FALL MEET LEADERS
ELYSEA’S WORLD HEADS FIELD OF 13 FOR SUNDAY’S
ROOD & RIDDLE DOWAGER
Multiple Grade 3 winner Elysea’s World (IRE) tops a field of 13 fillies and mares entered Thursday for Sunday’s 28th running of the $125,000 Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) going 1½ miles on the grass.
The Rood & Riddle Dowager will go as the eighth race on Sunday’s nine-race program with a 4:57 p.m. ET post time. First post Sunday is 1:05 p.m.
Purchased for $500,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, Elysea’s World comes off a third-place finish in the Rodeo Drive (G1) at Santa Anita on Sept. 28.
In her career, the 6-year-old mare has won four Grade 3 stakes and placed in nine other graded events. Now trained by Richard Baltas, Elysea’s World has posted a 6-1-0-1 mark this year for the partnership headed by Abbondanza Racing.
Javier Castellano has the mount on Elysea’s World and will break from post position 10.
The field for the Rood & Riddle Dowager, with riders and weights from the inside, is: Ambitious Moon (Steve Bahen, 121 pounds), Lemoona (Joe Bravo, 121), Gentle Ruler (Chris Landeros, 123), Over Thinking (Corey Lanerie, 121), Icy Calm (Cory Orm, 118), Beach Flower (Gabriel Saez, 121), Sea Dream (BRZ) (Julien Leparoux, 121), Touriga (BRZ) (Trevor McCarthy, 121), Pantsonfire (IRE) (Brian Hernandez Jr., 123), Elysea’s World (Castellano, 123), Decorating (Feargal Lynch, 121), Get Explicit (Ricardo Santana Jr., 121), Vevina (Tyler Gaffalione, 121).
INDIAN PRIDE LOOKS TO CONTINUE STRONG LINE OF FAMILY SUCCESS
IN SATURDAY’S LEXUS RAVEN RUN
Brereton Jones’ homebred Indian Pride will try to take the big step from maiden winner to Grade 2 winner in just her second start Saturday in the $250,000 Lexus Raven Run.
A product of nearby Airdrie Stud stallion Proud Citizen and mare Ms. Cornstalk, Indian Pride is getting the chance as a 3-year-old to showcase her talent.
“It has been a long process,” said Bret Jones, son of the former Kentucky Governor who owns Airdrie. “She was very precocious last year as a 2-year-old and then she got very sick on us. We sent her to the Mid-Atlantic Equine Medical Center (in New Jersey) and they did a great job with her getting her back to 100 percent and then sent her back here to Hagyard (Equine Medical Institute) and then to the farm.”
Indian Pride is a half-sister to Canadian champions Biofuel and Tu Endie Wei. Those two also won their debuts but did not make the jump to Grade 2 competition in their second starts.
“Biofuel is Ms. Cornstalk’s first foal,” Jones said of the filly, who earned Canada’s Sovereign Award as Horse of the Year in 2010. “Tu Endie Wei (Canada’s champion 2-year-old filly of 2011 and favorite here in the Grade 1 [Darley] Alcibiades in her third start) began her career by winning a (listed) stakes race.
“The family has been good to Dad for a long time.”
Indian Pride showed she was worth the wait when she rolled to an eight-length victory in a 6-furlong maiden race at Saratoga on Aug. 28.
“We flew up for the race,” Jones said. “When she went back into training, she showed the same precociousness that she had shown at 2.”
Jones said the decision to make the jump to the Lexus Raven Run was made by trainer Chad Brown.
“We have learned to let the people that are around the horses all the time to make those decisions and he wants to take a shot,” Jones said.
Airdrie and the Joneses also will be represented in the Lexus Raven Run by Istan Council. Fourth in the Dogwood (L) at Churchill Downs in her most recent start on Sept. 21, Istan Council is trained by Larry Jones (no relation).
MINUS COVFEFE, PESSIN HOPES BELL’S THE ONE REBOUNDS
IN LEXUS RAVEN RUN
Lothenbach Stables’ Bell’s the One, wasn’t the one in her most recent start in the Dogwood (L) at Churchill Downs on Sept. 21.
That day she chased Covfefe home in the 7-furlong stakes that was completed in 1:20.51, just .07 of a second off Groupie Doll’s track record.
Pessin won’t have to worry about Covfefe this weekend when he sends Bell’s the One out for the 21st running of the $250,000 Lexus Raven Run (G2) going 7 furlongs on the main track.
“That didn’t come up as an easy spot either,” Pessin said of the Lexus Raven Run. “Chad Brown has a couple in there; the one (Royal Charlotte) has won five of six and the other one (Indian Pride) won by eight the only time she ran.”
The Dogwood marked the return to the races for Bell’s the One after finishing seventh in the June 8 Acorn (G1) going a mile.
“She just got outrun in the Acorn,” Pessin said of the Majesticperfection filly, who has compiled an 8-4-2-0 mark. “She is doing well and had a good work here the other day (a half-mile in :48 last Saturday).”
Bell’s the One has posted victories on dirt, all-weather and turf.
“I’d like to try her sprinting on the grass,” Pessin said. “Right now what she does best is sprinting on the dirt and there are plenty of races for her.”
BALTAS READIES MULTIPLE SHOTS FOR WEEKEND STAKES
Trainer Richard Baltas, who struck Keeneland graded-stakes gold in 2018 with Next Shares in the Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) and Gas Station Sushi in the Beaumont (G3) Presented by Keeneland Select, will try to build on those numbers with five runners in stakes the next three days.
However, unlike Gas Station Sushi, none of these five began their racing careers with Baltas.
Lady Prancealot (IRE), who began her career in Europe last year, is entered in Friday’s Pin Oak Valley View (G3) for 3-year-old fillies after declining an invitation to run in last Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (G1).
“We took a look at it (the QE II) but this (the Pin Oak Valley View) was the plan all along,” said Aimee Dollase, Baltas’ assistant who is overseeing the Keeneland string. “She’s been doing well here.”
Sixth in the Jockey Club Oaks Invitational at Belmont Park on Sept. 7 in her most recent start, Lady Prancealot has had three grass works here since, including a best-of-16 drill at 5 furlongs on Sept. 29.
Horologist just came to the barn following a third-place finish in the Cotillion (G1) at Parx on Sept. 21. Owned by There’s A Chance Stable and new partners Parkland Thoroughbreds, Medallion Racing and Abbondanza Racing, Horologist had been trained by John Mazza.
In Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run (G2) for 3-year-old fillies going 7 furlongs, Horologist will be sprinting for the first time since this past winter at Gulfstream Park.
“The plan with her was to run in the Raven Run and give her a chance to shorten up against 3-year-olds,” Dollase said. “Maybe she wants two turns, but they wanted to try this race.”
Horologist took an instant liking to the Keeneland surface last Friday by working 5 furlongs in :59.40, the fastest move of 30 at the distance that morning. “That didn’t hurt (in the decision),” Dollase said.
On Sunday, Elysea’s World figures to be one of the horses to beat in the $125,000 Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) for fillies and mares going a mile and a half on the turf.
Purchased at Keeneland’s 2018 November Breeding Stock Sale for $500,000, the 6-year-old Elysea’s World has compiled a 6-1-0-1 record for the Baltas barn this year for earnings of $130,702.
“She has run some good races against some pretty tough mares,” Dollase said of Elysea’s World, who was third in the Rodeo Drive (G1) at Santa Anita going 1¼ miles on Sept. 28 in her most recent start. “She probably wants more ground and races in California are pretty limited.”
In her career spent mainly on the East Coast with trainer Chad Brown before being sold, Elysea’s World is a four-time Grade 3 winner with nine other graded stakes placing.
In addition to Elysea’s World, Baltas has two other runners in the Rood & Riddle Dowager: Zayat Stables’ Lemoona, who began her career on the East Coast with Bill Mott and joined the Baltas barn in the summer of 2018, and Next Wave Racing’s Pantsonfire (IRE), who began her career in Europe and joined the Baltas barn in the summer of 2017.
GALLOPING OUT
Repossession (IRE), a 2-year-old half-sister to two-time champion grass mare Tepin, will make her career debut in Friday’s second race for owner LNJ Foxwoods and trainer Ben Colebrook.
Tepin won five races in her career at Keeneland, four coming in Grade 1s highlighted by a victory over males in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“I don’t know what to expect,” Colebrook said. “Obviously the pedigree is there.” …
Godolphin’s Castle Lady (IRE) is getting an extended stay at Keeneland following her runner-up effort in last Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (G1).
Instead of going back to France on Tuesday, the filly will be pointed to the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) to be run Nov. 2 at Santa Anita. According to exercise rider Luc Chasserio, Castle Lady will ship to California Oct. 23. …
Keeneland racing analyst Tom Leach talked to these trainers about their horses in Friday’s Pin Oak Valley View (G3): trainer Norm Casse about Hard Legacy and Brad Cox about Irish Mischief.
CLOSING-DAY STAKES PROBABLES
$200,000 Hagyard Fayette (G2) (Entries taken Wednesday, Oct. 23; race Saturday, Oct 26) – Bal Harbour (trainer Todd Pletcher), Big Dollar Bill (Ian Wilkes), Blueridge Traveler (Kenny McPeek), Core Beliefs (Peter Eurton), Everfast (Dale Romans), Mocito Rojo (Shane Wilson), The Great Day (ARG) (Arnaud Delacour), Tom’s d’Etat (Al Stall Jr.). Possible: Firey Speech (Brian House), Major Cabbie (Peter Miller), Mr Darcy (Angel Montano).
BREEDERS’ CUP CANDIDATES STABLED AT KEENELAND
Keeneland is home to several possible contenders for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Santa Anita on Nov. 1-2.
Pre-entry deadline for the Breeders’ Cup is noon on Monday, Oct. 21. Pre-entries will be announced Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Here are the trainers and their possible Breeders’ Cup runners:
Trainer (Barn) Horse BC Race Last Race Latest Work
Rusty Arnold (60) Leinster Turf Sprint (G1) 2nd 10/5 Woodford (G2) at KEE
Totally Boss Turf Sprint Won 9/7 Runhappy Turf Sprint (G3) at KD 10/13: 4f in :48.80 (dirt)
Ignacio Correas IV (41, 70) Blue Prize (ARG) Distaff (G1) Won 10/6 Juddmonte Spinster (G1) at KEE
Walk In Marrakesh (IRE) Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) 2nd 9/15 Natalma (G1) at WO 10/13: 4f in :52 (turf)
Eddie Kenneally (72) Abscond Juvenile Fillies Turf Won 9/15 Natalma at WO 10/10: 4f in :49 (dirt)
Kieran McLaughlin (33) Dawn the Destroyer Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) 2nd 10/5 Thoroughbred Club of America (G2) at KEE
Henri-Alex Pantall (quarantine barn) Castle Lady (IRE) Filly and Mare Turf (G1) 2nd 10/12 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (G1)
Todd Pletcher (6) Sweet Melania Juvenile Fillies Turf Won 10/9 JPMorgan Chase Jessamine (G2) at KEE
Jack Sisterson (Calumet Farm barn on Rice Road) Bandua Turf (G1) 8th 10/5 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) at KEE
Lexitonian Sprint (G1) 3rd 10/4 Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G2) at KEE
Brendan Walsh (24) Maxfield TVG Juvenile (G1) Won 10/5 Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) at KEE
Vitalogy (GB) Juvenile Turf (G1) 2nd 10/6 Dixiana Bourbon (G3) at KEE
Wesley Ward (47, 68) Cambria Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) Won 9/7 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint at KD 10/13: 5f in 1:03.60 (turf)
Four Wheel Drive Juvenile Turf Sprint Won 10/6 Futurity (G3) at BEL
Kimari Juvenile Turf Sprint Won 10/6 Indian Summer at KEE
FALL MEET SPECIAL EVENTS
All Year
Official Keeneland Tours – A variety of guided walking tours showcase Keeneland’s racing and sales operations. Click here for more information.
Through March 2020
The Keeneland Library Presents “A Day in the Life: Volume I” – This new exhibit features the work of early Turf photographer John C. Hemment. The Keeneland Library is home to the largest known surviving body of work of Hemment, a photographer during the late 19th and early 20th century. A virtual counterpart of the Hemment exhibit is at keenelandlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits. Celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, the Library is free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET.
Thursday, Oct. 17
East Gate Shop special offer – The satellite location of The Keeneland Shop is offering a $5 off hat purchase on Wednesdays and Thursdays during the Fall Meet (offer not available at The Keeneland Shop and Milliners Corner or at satellite locations at Wagering Central and the finish line). Located on the first floor of the Saddling Paddock Chalet – in a corner near the East Gate Grandstand entrance – the East Gate Shop is open to the public Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. until 30 minutes after the final race. (Re-entry to the track is available through the East Gate entrance.)
The East Gate Shop, which has a selection of hats, T-shirts and other Keeneland souvenir items, has personalization and engraving options so purchases can be customized. A complimentary bag check enables fans to leave their purchases there during the races and pick them up when they leave.
Friday, Oct. 18
College Scholarship Day – Full-time college students will receive free general admission and the chance to win a total of 18 college scholarships worth $70,000: ten $2,000 scholarships from Keeneland and the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, two $10,000 Runhappy Scholarships and six $5,000 scholarships from Claiborne Farm, Glen Hill Farm, Hinkle Farms, Paramount Sales, Solis/Litt Bloodstock and Taylor Made Farm. At Keeneland’s College Zone on the North Terrace, students will enjoy music, free food, prize drawings and more. Click here to pre-register before 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Budweiser Clydesdales at Keeneland. A single Clydesdale will be available for photo opportunities at the East Gate entrance from noon to 1 p.m.
The Hill – Keeneland’s official tailgate lot features a jumbo screen to watch live racing and football, wagering booths, live music, local food trucks and free shuttles to the Grandstand.
$200,000-guaranteed Friday Pick Four Presented by TVG.
The Keeneland Shop presents a trunk show with Frederique.
Saturday, Oct. 19
Sunrise Trackside – Families, out-of-town guests, longtime Keeneland fans and others will enjoy spending a morning at the track before the races begin. Watch racehorses train over the track and enjoy Breakfast With the Works and trackside commentary (7-8:30 a.m.); children’s activities in the Kids Club Corner (7:30-9:30 a.m.); free guided tours of the grounds (7:30-10 a.m.) and a demonstration by New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program in the Paddock (9 a.m.).
Jockey Q&A with Chantal Sutherland in the Paddock at 12:05 p.m.
The Hill – Keeneland’s official tailgate lot features a jumbo screen to watch live racing and football, wagering booths, live music, local food trucks and free shuttles to the Grandstand.
The Keeneland Shop presents a trunk show with Frederique.
Budweiser Clydesdales at Keeneland. The famous hitch will appear between races weather permitting.
$300,000 Guaranteed Pick 4 Presented by TVG
Sunday, Oct. 20
Heroes Day Presented by City BBQ – Keeneland will recognize the men and women who serve our community. All military (active duty and veterans), first responders – law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs – and their families will receive free general admission, access to reserved Grandstand seating, free lunch and be able to take part in children’s activities. The day will include a flag unfurling on the main track between races and recognition of local heroes in the Winner’s Circle.
Budweiser Clydesdales at Keeneland. A single Clydesdale will be available for photo opportunities at the East Gate entrance from noon to 1 p.m.
The Keeneland Shop presents Milliners Corner with Dorfman.
Tuesday, Oct. 22
Library Lecture Series – The Keeneland Library, which is celebrating its 80th birthday, will present Brien Bouyea, who will discuss his new book, The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga’s Greatest Race, which he co-wrote with Michael Veitch. The event, which begins at 6:30 p.m., is free and open to the public.
FALL MEET LEADERS
Through Oct. 16 (9 days of 17-day season)
Jockey Starts Wins 2nd 3rd Purses
Javier Castellano 44 12 8 6 $1,209,072
Jose Ortiz 63 11 9 8 $1,309,448
Julien Leparoux 48 8 6 6 $569,370
Florent Geroux 44 6 8 3 $465,168
Corey Lanerie 53 6 7 8 $336,539
Trainer Starts Wins 2nd 3rd Purses
Chad Brown 20 6 3 1 $859,425
Mike Maker 27 4 5 5 $292,365
Brendan Walsh 20 4 4 1 $509,735
Brad Cox 26 4 3 5 $505,632
Mark Casse 22 3 4 2 $516,071
Peter Miller 6 3 1 0 $248,572
Graham Motion 11 3 0 0 $147,127
Owner Wins
Alex G. Campbell Jr. 2
Godolphin (Mohammed Al Maktoum et al) 2
Ten Broeck Farm (David Mowat) 2
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