Drop in class, likely fast pace favor Sonneman in Thursday allowance

Thursday’s 10-race card at Keeneland is the first of the meet without a stakes – but several horses with noteworthy stakes experience will be in action in various allowance-level events on the card.

Sonneman exits a second in a graded stakes for the $73,000 fourth race, a 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional race for 3-year-olds who have never won two races other than maiden, claiming, starter, or statebred events, or who have never won three races.

Sonneman, trained by Steve Asmussen, has made his three most recent starts in stakes. He was a distant second in the two-horse Easy Goer at Belmont and fifth going seven furlongs in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens at Saratoga. He most recently was second to Rushie in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile at Churchill Downs.

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The late-rallying Sonneman should have pace to run at Thursday under Ricardo Santana Jr.

The front-running Ragtime Blues is looking for his first win in the care of Rodolphe Brisset after having been transferred from Bob Baffert over the summer. In his last two starts for Baffert, he was second to subsequent Grade 1 winner Collusion Illusion in the Grade 3 Lazaro Barrera at Santa Anita, then second in the restricted Smiling Tiger at Del Mar. Ragtime Blues has made two starts for Brisset, finishing far back in optional-claiming sprints at Churchill and Indiana Grand.

Ragtime Blues breaks from post 2 under Tyler Gaffalione.

Big Dreaming, who also has shown speed, is trying dirt for the first time after winning 2 of 4 prior starts, all on turf. A son of champion Dreaming of Anna, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt, Big Dreaming was second going 1 5/16 miles on turf in the Dueling Grounds Derby on Sept. 10 at Kentucky Downs.

Ramsey Solution is likely to be favored in the ninth race, a $78,000 conditioned allowance at 1 1/16 miles on turf for 3-year-olds and up. Trained by Wesley Ward, Ramsey Solution has won two of his last three starts and is coming off a victory in the restricted Tapit Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

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Graded stakes winners English Bee and Big Score were fourth and eighth in the Tapit and face Ramsey Solution again here. The field also includes graded stakes winner Mr Dumas; stakes winners Spectacular Gem and Jasikan; American Tattoo, a Group 1 winner in Argentina who is a stakes winner in the United States; and stakes-placed Renaisance Frolic and Title Ready.

Eliade is looking for her first win in the United States in the seventh race, a $73,000 allowance for fillies and mares on the turf. The filly came to Chad Brown this year from her native France, where she won at the 1 1/2-mile distance of this race. Eliade gets class relief after finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Glens Falls last time out and is drawn on the rail under Javier Castellano.

Brown has another European import on the card in French-born juvenile filly Zoikes, who makes her debut in the third race, a $70,000 maiden special weight at a mile on turf. Zoikes, by international supersire Dubawi, turned in a solid local work last Saturday.

Ward will saddle Anamuya, who finished fifth and third in her two outings. The winners of those races were Plum Ali and Fluffy Socks, who won stakes at Belmont and Pimlico, respectively, last weekend.