LEXINGTON, Ky. – In the glorious 87-year history of Keeneland Race Course, exactly one horse has won the same stakes race three years in a row. “Well, I guess the odds are stacked against us, huh?” a smiling Bill Mott asked. Umm, not really. That’s because War Like Goddess, winner of the Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes the last two years, figures as an odds-on favorite Friday when Keeneland closes its 2023 spring meet with the 61st running of the $300,000 Bewitch. The Bewitch is the eighth of 10 Friday races and part of the pick six, which begins on race 5 has a carryover of $52,325. War Like Goddess, returning from a nearly six-month layoff, will have Joel Rosario aboard from post 4 when facing five other fillies and mares in the Bewitch, which will be run around three turns at 1 1/2 miles over the turf. The 6-year-old mare will be looking to match the three straight victories compiled by Royal Harmony in the Fayette Handicap from 1969-71. War Like Goddess, a bay English Channel mare owned by George Krikorian, has won 9 of 13 career starts and would need only to run third or better Friday to tip past the $2 million earnings mark. Most bettors will project her doing even better, as she won the 2021 running as a 6-5 favorite and the 2022 renewal at 1-5. War Like Goddess was last seen finishing third in the Nov. 5 Breeders’ Cup Turf when facing male rivals going this same 1 1/2-mile distance. :: Bet Keeneland with Confidence: Get DRF PPs, Picks, and Betting Strategies. Shop Now.  “She had a good vacation and then we brought her back” into training over the winter at Payson Park in Florida, Mott said. “It’s been straightforward so far with her return. I’m pretty well pleased with that.” Mott noted that War Like Goddess won the 2021 Bewitch following a pair of races at Gulfstream Park, then was coming off a layoff nearly identical to this one when returning here last spring following a third in the BC Filly and Mare Turf. As to what might lay ahead for the balance of 2023 for her, “we’ll take it one at a time,” he said, alluding to her need for distance while bemoaning how the downgrading of the Flower Bowl from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2 starting in 2022 makes the scheduling of her races a bit more difficult. “That’s why we chose to run against the boys last year” in winning the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic before her BC Turf third, Mott said. Among the opponents looking to get far enough ahead of the powerful stretch kick of War Like Goddess so as to foil her three-peat quest are Personal Best (post 5, Irad Ortiz Jr.), who continued her ascension into the filly-mare turf elite with a productive winter at Gulfstream, and a fresh Sopran Basilea (post 6, Luis Saez), an Irish-bred import with Group 2 and Group 3 victories from two seasons of racing in Italy. Temple City Terror (post 2, Jose Ortiz), like War Like Goddess, is a left-field closer who tends to require help with a fast-to-honest pace up front. The 7-year-old mare was an okay fourth in her March return to action for trainer Brendan Walsh and her new owners, Town and Country Racing, when failing to make headway against a pair of rivals, Shantisara and Scotish Star, who were one-two all the way around in the Grade 2 Hillsborough on the Tampa Bay Downs turf. Last fall, Temple City Terror won Keeneland’s fall counterpart to the Bewitch, the Grade 3 Dowager, for Walsh and her former owners, Pocket Aces Racing and Somewhere Stable Kentucky. Longshots Chaton Rouge and Ensemble round out the Bewitch cast. For what it’s worth, the turf course could have some give to it. Local rain chances were rated at 80 percent for Thursday and 70 percent for Friday, with highs in the mid-60s both days. :: Bet the races on DRF Bets! Sign up with code WINNING to get a $250 Deposit Match, $10 Free Bet, and FREE DRF Formulator.  Aside from Royal Harmony, Rochester also won three runnings of a Keeneland stakes, the Sycamore, but not consecutively (2001-02-05). Wise Dan, the first-ballot Hall of Famer, holds the track record with seven stakes wins from 2010 to 2014. The Bewitch, named for the great Calumet Farm mare who retired in 1951, is the eighth of 10 Friday races. First post is 1 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 4:44. A terrific undercard includes three allowances and three maiden-specials, most with base purses of at least $100,000. The Bewitch is part of the $3 minimum Keeneland Turf Pick 3 (races 6, 8, and 10). The first allowance (race 5) marks the 4-year-old debut of We the People, a 10-length winner of the Grade 3 Peter Pan last spring. The Constitution colt will be heavily favored when having Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard in his first start in the care of Todd Pletcher. Churchill Downs starts its spring meet Saturday night with the Roxelana for filly-mare sprinters. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.