Eleven stakes winners entered in Valley View

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The final graded turf stakes of the meet anchors an outstanding 10-race Friday card with an oversubscribed lineup of 3-year-old fillies clashing in the Grade 3, $150,000 Valley View Stakes (race 9).

Eleven of the 16 entered (including two also-eligibles) already have won stakes, led by Lady Speightspeare, winner of the Grade 1 Natalma last year at 2, and graded winners Crazy Beautiful and Gam’s Mission. Top to bottom, it’s an exceptionally deep cast.

The Friday co-feature is the $150,000 Myrtlewood (race 8), which is similarly competitive with a field of 11 2-year-old fillies going six furlongs.

Back to the Beard Course

Main-track races held at the unique Beard Course distance of seven furlongs and 184 feet once were held on a fairly regular basis at Keeneland, but when a capacity field of 2-year-old maidens is loaded into the gate for the seventh race Thursday, it will be the first such race at this meet.

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The lack of Beard Course races “was strictly unintentional,” said Ben Huffman, the longtime Keeneland racing secretary, partly explaining that with no turf racing at the upcoming fall meet at Churchill, “we wanted to offer more turf at this meet than usual.”

Huffman also is the racing secretary at Churchill, where a 21-day fall meet begins Sunday with a card exclusively for 2-year-olds, led by the $200,000 Street Sense and $200,000 Rags to Riches, both at 1 1/16 miles. Renovation of the Churchill turf course is scheduled to be completed ahead of the 2022 spring meet.

Murphy in career switch

Tia Murphy, a fixture in the racing offices of all five Thoroughbred tracks in Kentucky when serving in various positions for more than two decades, has begun working full time for Churchill Downs Inc. as the horsemen’s bookkeeper at the company’s flagship Louisville track and at Turfway Park.

Murphy most recently was the assistant racing secretary at Keeneland. Her career as a racing official began in 2000 at Ellis Park.

◗ When the 2-year-old filly You Look Cold runs Friday as a longshot in the Myrtlewood with Paco Lopez aboard, she will be the first starter for trainer Rob O’Connor in more than two years in Kentucky, where the trainer had made his primary base since his career began in 1985. O’Connor, 62, still maintains a home in Louisville while now working a circuit of Monmouth Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

◗ The $3-minimum Keeneland Turf Pick 3 on Thursday comprises races 3-6-8.