Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Anticipation building for Keeneland fall meet opener
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The racing office and barn area were centers of heightened activity Monday at Keeneland, where excitement continues to build for a 17-day fall meet that begins Friday.
Per-day purses are expected to average $722,000, the highest in track history, at a meet that runs through Oct. 28.
“Everyone around here is looking forward to a fabulous meet,” said Ben Huffman, racing secretary at Keeneland since 2002.
As always, the front-loaded meet will begin with FallStars Weekend, comprising nine graded stakes over the first three days of racing – two Friday, five Saturday, and two Sunday. All are preps toward the Nov. 3-4 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar, with all but one, the Woodford, being designated as Win and You’re In events.
The Friday opener will be anchored by the Grade 1 Alcibiades and Grade 2 Phoenix. Entries for that 10-race card were to be drawn Tuesday.
The richest race of the meet, the $1 million Shadwell Turf Mile, might well be one of the deepest, with the limit of 14 likely to be imposed. Lancaster Bomber, most recently second in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, was expected to arrive here Wednesday for trainer Aidan O’Brien as one of the likely favorites for the Shadwell.
The Shadwell is one of three Grade 1 races to be run here Saturday, along with the $500,000 Breeders’ Futurity and $400,000 First Lady. The other Saturday stakes are the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America and Grade 2 Woodford.
Dona Bruja, runner-up in the Grade 1 Beverly D. in her last start, could be the horse to beat in the one-mile First Lady.
“This has been our goal ever since the Beverly D.,” trainer Ignacio Correas said while trackside Monday.
Saturday entries were to be drawn Wednesday. The Saturday crowd is expected to swell with thousands more out-oftown guests than normal, as Kentucky will host Missouri in a nighttime college football game at nearby Kroger Field as part of a Blue Grass sports doubleheader.
Big World skipping Spinster
Big World will not run at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 8, a race for which the Louisiana-bred filly figured as a top contender.
“I just couldn’t get her as fit as I wanted,” said trainer Tom Amoss, adding that Big World will be pointed instead to the Grade 2 Chilukki at Churchill Downs in early November.
The $500,000 Spinster, a Win and You’re In to the BC Distaff at Del Mar, now has Romantic Vision, Blue Prize, and Tiger Moth as prospective favorites. The Spinster and Grade 3 Bourbon conclude the FallStars schedule Sunday.
Borel a first-time father
Hall of Fame and three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel is a father for the first time after his fiancée, Renay Falkner, gave birth in Louisville on Sept. 27 to a son, Chase Clovis Borel.
Borel, 50, said the boy’s middle name was his late father’s first name. As for the name Chase, “we just liked it.”
Bird Song injured, retired
Bird Song, a two-time graded winner of $512,707, has been retired after exiting his last race, the Sept. 23 Kelso at Belmont Park, with what trainer Ian Wilkes described as a minor injury.
Bred and owned by the Marylou Whitney Stables, Bird Song, a 4-year-old colt by Unbridled’s Song, won the Grade 3 Fred Hooper and Grade 2 Alysheba.
Churchill Single 6 pays $34K
After its jackpot failed to be swept by a solo perfect ticket on any of the prior 10 racing days, the Single 6 paid $34,499 for each winner Sunday, closing day of the 11-day September meet at Churchill. Odds on the six winners in the sequence were 8-1, 2-1, 16-1, 9-1, 2-1, and 1-1. Single-day handle was $305,381.
Zambian was one of the winners in the Single 6 sequence when part of a frenzied finish that resulted in the sixth-place finisher, Go Navy Go, being defeated less than a length.