Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Ten stakes planned during three-day opening weekend
Equine standouts such as Midnight Bisou, Newspaper of record, Whitmore, and Halladay are among the expected participants when Keeneland Race Course begins its 17-day fall meet next Friday with the three-day FallStars Weekend.
Ten stakes, all but one of them Win and You’re In events toward the Nov. 6-7 Breeders’ Cup, will get things rolling when the historic Lexington, Ky., track opens. The Grade 1 Alcibiades and Grade 2 Phoenix are the opening-day features, with five stakes set for Saturday and three more for Sunday.
Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, no spectators will be permitted at the fall meet, nor at the Breeders’ Cup, which Keeneland is hosting for the second time (the first was 2015).
Purses have been reduced slightly from their record levels of recent years, mostly because of decreased wagering revenues during the pandemic. For example, the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile is worth $750,000, down from a $1 million threshold first attained in 2014.
Midnight Bisou, the star 5-year-old mare with nearly $7.5 million in career earnings, will race Sunday in the Spinster after returning to Kentucky earlier in the week from Saratoga, according to trainer Steve Asmussen. A matchup with her longtime rival Monomoy Girl could make for the meet highlight, although trainer Brad Cox might just wait for the BC Distaff with Monomoy Girl.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the first few meet stakes:
Grade 1, $350,000 Alcibiades (Friday): Ken McPeek could have as many as three 2-yearold fillies in this 1 1/16-mile race, led by Pocahontas runnerup Crazy Beautiful.
Grade 2, $200,000 Phoenix (Friday): Whitmore, the 14-time winner of nearly $3.2 million, will face Diamond Oops, Echo Town, and other top sprinters in this six-furlong race.
Grade 1, $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile (Saturday): This figures among the deepest races of the meet, with Halladay, a last-out winner of the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga for Todd Pletcher, squaring off against defending champion Bowies Hero and as many as four older turf specialists from the Chad Brown barn.
Grade 1, $350,000 First Lady( Saturday ): The Brown trained Newspaper of record gets a rematch in this one-mile turf race with Beau Recall, who upset her in the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile on Kentucky Derby Day.
The other Saturday stakes are the Grade 1, $400,000 Breeders’ Futurity, for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles; the Grade 2, $200,000 Thoroughbred Club of America for fillies and mares at six furlongs; and the Grade 2, $150,000 Woodford (the only weekend stakes not designated as Win and You’re In) for turf sprinters.
Besides the 1 1/8-mile Spinster, the other Sunday stakes are the Grade 2, $200,000 Bourbon for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the turf, and the $200,000 Indian Summer for 2-year-old turf sprinters.
A 10th Win and You’re In, the Grade 2 Jessamine for 2-yearold turf fillies, is set for Oct. 7, the first Wednesday of the meet. The sixth and last Grade 1, the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, will be run Oct. 10.
First post daily is 1:05 p.m. Eastern.
The meet runs through Oct. 24, after which Churchill Downs will host eight programs (Oct. 25 to Nov. 5). Then comes the two-day Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland, followed by 16 more cards at Churchill (Nov. 8-29).
Major Fed faces easier
A couple of 3-year-olds directly or indirectly involved in the Kentucky Derby earlier this month are among the top runners Sunday in the two allowances that anchor the closing-day card of the 14-day September meet at Churchill Downs.
Major Fed, 10th in the Sept. 5 Derby, figures to be favored when he faces older horses for the first time in looking to get through his first allowance condition in race 3, a $77,000 route that drew a field of six.
Mailman Money, whose flashy first two starts led to a couple of disappointing efforts in Derby preps last winter at Fair Grounds, makes a longawaited return to action for Bret Calhoun following a sixmonth layoff in race 9 a $79,000 second-level sprint that drew a field of seven 3-year-olds.
First post is 12:45 p.m. Eastern. A mandatory payout of all wagering pools will be in effect. FS2 has full coverage of the 10-race meet finale. The circuit goes dark for four days prior to the Friday meet opener at Keeneland.
Maxfield back in training
Maxfield, widely regarded as a top Derby contender prior to being injured in June, is back in light training at Churchill Downs with trainer Brendan Walsh.
Maxfield suffered a nondisplaced lateral condylar fracture during a June 10 workout at Keeneland. Unbeaten in three career starts, the Godolphin homebred missed about 90 days of training and can be expected back at full strength later in the fall or early winter.
Jockey Jon Court, who took time off to recover from a nagging injury, rode for the first time since June 30 last Sunday at Churchill. Court, 59, has ridden nearly 4,200 winners in a career dating to 1980.