Keeneland Barn Notes — Thursday, April 20

By Amy Owens —-

THURSDAY, APRIL 20

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

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RAISE CAIN WORKS 5 FURLONGS IN KENTUCKY DERBY TUNEUP
INTERSTATEDAYDREAM CAN GIVE COX MILESTONE WIN IN
BAIRD DOUBLEDOGDARE
WELL-TRAVELED SKIPPYLONGSTOCKING TAKES AIM ON BEN ALI
PROSPECTIVE FIELD FOR CLOSING-DAY BEWITCH
SATURDAY’S CROSS COUNTRY PICK 5 INCLUDES KEENELAND GRADED STAKES
SPRING MEET LEADERS
SPRING MEET WEEK 3 SPECIAL EVENTS

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RAISE CAIN WORKS 5 FURLONGS IN KENTUCKY DERBY TUNEUP

Andrew and Rania Warren’s Raise Cain began his major preparation for an expected run in the Kentucky Derby (G1) Presented by Woodford Reserve by working 5 furlongs in 1:03.40 Thursday morning at Keeneland over a fast track.

With regular work rider Isael Garcia aboard for trainer Ben Colebrook, Raise Cain produced fractions of :13.60, :26.80, :38.60, :51.40, 1:03.40 and galloped out 6 furlongs in 1:15.80. (Click here for a video of the work.)

“Nice and easy … finished well and galloped out well. Just what you’re looking for,” Colebrook said. “He started out slow and then finished well.”

A Keeneland sales graduate who won the Gotham (G3) at Aqueduct prior to finishing fifth in Keeneland’s Toyota Blue Grass (G1), Raise Cain will be ridden in the Kentucky Derby by Javier Castellano.

Colebrook, who will be saddling his first Kentucky Derby starter, plans to work Raise Cain next Thursday or Friday depending on weather.

Raise Cain will complete the Keeneland segment of his Kentucky Derby preparation Monday, May 1. He will train here in the morning before vanning to Churchill Downs.

INTERSTATEDAYDREAM CAN GIVE COX MILESTONE WIN
IN BAIRD DOUBLEDOGDARE

The record for stakes victories by a trainer at any Keeneland meet is four – a mark that is in jeopardy because of the banner meet the Brad Cox barn is having.

Cox, the Spring Meet’s leading trainer with eight victories through April 19, has won the April 7 Lafayette with Stonestreet Stables’ Corona Bolt; the April 8 Shakertown (G2) with Qatar Racing, Marc Detampel and Madaket Stable’s Caravel; and the April 15 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) with Godolphin’s First Mission. He tied the mark April 16 when Flurry Racing Stables and Hoffman Family Racing’s Key of Life won the Beaumont (G2) Presented by Keeneland Select.

“We didn’t even think she would run here, and it was a last-minute decision,” said Blake Cox, his father’s Keeneland assistant.

Stakes win No. 5 could be Flurry Racing Stables’ Interstatedaydream, the 6-5 morning line favorite for Friday’s $300,000 Baird Doubledogdare (G3).

“This race was the target all along,” Cox said of Interstatedaydream, who returned to the races off a 6½-month layoff to run third in the Azeri (G2) on March 11 behind Secret Oath and Clairiere. “She had a tough year, a long year last year, and we gave her the time off to grow up and be a good 4-year-old.”

Regular rider Florent Geroux will be aboard Friday as Intertstatedaydream makes her second Keeneland start. She was third in the 2022 Central Bank Ashland (G1) behind eventual champion Nest.

In addition to Cox, three trainers have won four stakes previously during the Spring Meet: Ben Jones (1948), Todd Pletcher (2011) and Chad Brown (2018). Trainers who have accomplished the feat during the Fall Meet are D. Wayne Lukas (1994 and 1995), Mark Casse (2016) and Graham Motion (2016).

“You come in here loaded and hope you’ll have a good meet,” Blake Cox said. “We caught some breaks and had some that didn’t go our way like the (Central Bank) Ashland (G1, when Punchbowl ran second, beaten a half-length) and the (Toyota) Blue Grass (G1, when Verifying ran second, beaten a neck).”

Should Interstatedaydream not deliver the record setter Friday, Cox will have one more chance Saturday when he sends out Peachtree Stable’s Tawny Port in the 92nd running of the $300,000 Ben Ali (G3).

“He’s doing good and we are putting blinkers on him to get him more involved early,” Cox said of Tawny Port, winner of last spring’s Stonestreet Lexington. “We are expecting big things.”

WELL-TRAVELED SKIPPYLONGSTOCKING TAKES AIM ON BEN ALI

Daniel Alonso’s three-time Grade 3 winner Skippylongstocking arrived at Keeneland Monday from Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida for a start in Saturday’s 92nd running of the $300,000 Ben Ali (G3) going 1 3/16 miles on the main track.

“He’s a good traveler,” said Beau Chapman, assistant to trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “This race kind of lined up well with the date.”

Keeneland will mark the ninth track at which Skippylongstocking has run with his most recent stop being a victory at Tampa Bay Downs on March 11 in the Michelob Ultra Challenger (G3).

“He came out of the Challenger well and gave us the confidence to put him in here,” Chapman said of Skippylongstocking, who finished fifth in the Preakness (G1) and third in the Belmont (G1) last year.

Chapman, 26, has been with the Joseph barn for a year and a half and has watched Skippylongstocking progress.

“He has improved with age,” Chapman said of the Keeneland sales graduate. “He is a big, lanky horse and he has grown into himself and really developed.”

PROSPECTIVE FIELD FOR CLOSING-DAY BEWITCH

Here are the prospective entries for the $300,00 Bewitch (G3) on the April 28 closing day of the Keeneland Spring Meet compiled by Stakes Coordinator Baley Hare:

$300,000 Bewitch (G3) – Possible: Broadway Boogie (trainer James Toner), Temple City Terror (Brendan Walsh).

Entries will be taken Sunday.

SATURDAY’S CROSS COUNTRY PICK 5 INCLUDES
KEENELAND GRADED STAKES

Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 includes Keeneland’s Elkhorn (G2) and Ben Ali (G3). The minimum wager is 50 cents.

Saturday’s Cross Country Pick 5 features these races:

Leg A: Keeneland, Race 8 – Elkhorn (G2) at 4:44 p.m.

Leg B: Aqueduct, Race 8 – NYSSS Times Square at 5:06 p.m.

Leg C: Keeneland, Race 9 – Ben Ali (G3) at 5:16 p.m.

Leg D: Oaklawn Park, Race 10 – Oaklawn Handicap (G2) at 6:06 p.m.

Leg E: Oaklawn Park, Race 11 – Bath House Row at 6:46 p.m.