Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Divisidero preps for Turf Classic in allowance
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Aside from death and taxes, there aren’t many certainties in life – unless you count Wesley Ward winning with 2-year-olds every spring at Keeneland.
Ward began the 15-day meet by sending out Fairyland to win the meet opener Friday, a 4 1/2-furlong baby race.
“We’re really excited about this filly,” said Ward, who trains Fairyland, a daughter of Scat Daddy, for the Coolmore partnership. “She’s going to be a tiger at Royal Ascot” in June.
Fairyland returned $4.80 as the favorite in a field of 11 after finishing in 52.68 seconds under 54-year-old jockey Julio Garcia.
Ward entered the meet with a record of 51 for 189 in 2-yearold races at Keeneland, a category that includes longer races during fall meets. He will try to continue his domination of the 2-year-old ranks by running an uncoupled entry in each of the next such scheduled races on Sunday and Wednesday.
In the meantime, the spring meet was supposed to unfold with far better weather than what met racegoers Friday – high temperatures in the low 50s made even more uncomfortable by a biting upstretch wind. Hats and gloves abounded throughout the shaded grandstand as patrons tried to stay warm, although Kelsey Hinton was attired in a sleeveless dress when standing in the sun near the paddock.
“I’ve got a sweater right here,” said Hinton, a 24-yearold Kentucky native now living in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
All in all, conditions were tolerable. The main track was fast, and the turf course seemed destined for an upgrade from good to firm as the afternoon wore on. The Grade 3 Transylvania, for 3-year-olds on turf, was to be run later in the day as the highlight of the 10-race card.
Aside from tweaks to the graphics for its in-house simulcast signal, the scene was pretty familiar as another meet got under way at this picturesque 81-year-old track, with Steve Buttleman blowing the bugle, Robert Alexander starting the races and Kurt Becker announcing them.
Divisidero preps for Grade 1
The Daily Racing Form chart will forever record it as a $78,000 allowance race, but insiders know better. Seven of the 10 starters in the seventh race Sunday at Keeneland are graded stakes winners, and it will take an effort commensurate with those past-performance lines to get the money.
Divisidero won the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs last May, and he is using Sunday’s race as a stepping-stone to return to the Kentucky Derby Day fixture, said trainer Buff Bradley.
“Keeneland is the only place in the country that could run a race like this,” said Bradley. “I don’t know that the Maker’s [46 Mile] next week will be any tougher.”
The other graded stakes winners in the 1 1/16-mile turf allowance are Kaigun, Pleuven, Divine Oath, Flatlined, Thatcher Street, and Take the Stand. Even the three nongraded winners – Fire Away, Projected, and Keystoneforvictory – will take their fair share of wagering action in a race written with virtually wide-open conditions.
Divisidero, said Bradley, recently returned from Florida and “has really been doing super in this cooler weather.”
“He’s jumping around and everything and really seems like a fresh horse,” Bradley said. “He’s glad to be back in Kentucky.”
Along with the featured Beaumont Stakes, the turf allowance is part of a terrific Sunday card. The undercard includes a $72,000 allowance (race 1) that drew Dial Me, a 3-year-old filly owned by the 200-member Churchill Downs Racing Club; a 4 1/2-furlong maiden event (race 2) that surely will have the uncoupled Wesley Ward-trained duo of Paris Cruise and Happy Like a Fool as favorites in a full field of 2-year-olds; and a maiden turf event (race 9) in which Brooklyn Bobby – by the hot young sire Frankel and named in honor of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel – likely will be favored in another full field.
Lady Eli set to work
Lady Eli is among several fillies and mares scheduled to breeze Sunday over the Keeneland turf in preparation for perhaps the deepest race of the entire 15-day spring meet, the Grade 1, $350,000 Jenny Wiley.
Time and Motion, the winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup here last fall, and Catch a Glimpse, the winner of the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland, also will breeze toward the Jenny Wiley, one of four stakes set for next Saturday, April 15.
Lady Eli, 5, has been a standout since the fall of her 2-year-old season in 2014. She was beaten a nose in her most recent start, the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, and will bring a career mark of 7 for 9 into the 1 1/16-mile Jenny Wiley.
“She’s come along real well the last couple of months,” said Chad Brown, who trains Lady Eli for Sheep Pond Partners. “We’re really excited about getting started back with her.”
The other Saturday stakes are the Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington; the Grade 3, $200,000 Ben Ali; and the $100,000 Giant’s Causeway.
Keeneland races four days next week (Wednesday to Saturday), with next Sunday dark because of the Easter holiday. The earlier stakes are the Grade 3, $125,000 Appalachian on Thursday and the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile on Friday.