Emaraaty battle hardened for Wednesday allowance

Keeneland will start the final full week of its fall race meeting with an eight-race Wednesday card and a $75,000 turf allowance as the nominal feature.

This five-day race week runs from Wednesday through Sunday. After its Monday and Tuesday dark days, Keeneland then comes back for a final four-day race week, with closing day on Saturday, Oct. 26.

There are five graded stakes remaining on the schedule for the front-loaded fall meeting – the Grade 3, $150,000 Sycamore Stakes (Thursday), the Grade 3, $150,000 Valley View Stakes (Friday), the Grade 2, $250,000 Raven Run Stakes (Saturday), the Grade 3, $125,000 Dowager Stakes (Sunday), and the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette Stakes (Oct. 26).

The seventh race Wednesday is a second-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up going a mile on turf. It includes several runners with stakes experience, including Emaraaty, who is making his third start in the United States and is trained by Chad Brown. Owned by Shadwell, the Dubawi colt won twice from seven starts while racing in Great Britain. He won his first start in this country, also his first start in more than a year, when he took a second-level optional-claiming race July 27 at Saratoga, edging Frontier Market by a neck. He was flattered when Frontier Market came back to win his next start at the same level and then finish second in the Grade 3 Baltimore/Washington International Turf Cup.

Emaraaty then jumped directly into U.S. graded stakes competition, finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap on Sept. 2 at Saratoga. He was again flattered when the runner-up, Sacred Life, won a Keeneland allowance last week.

Javier Castellano, aboard Emaraaty in both his U.S. starts, retains the mount Wednesday. Brown and Castellano lead Keeneland’s fall meet trainer and rider standings entering Wednesday’s card.

The full field of 12 for this allowance also includes Louder Than Bombs, who won the Armed Forces Stakes at Gulfstream Park in September 2018 and finished third behind A Thread of Blue and Casa Creed in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at the same track in March for trainer David Fawkes. Both colts who finished ahead of him won stakes over the summer in Saratoga.

Combatant and Tigers Rule both have placed in graded stakes and are contenders in the Wednesday feature.

Wednesday’s card at Keeneland also includes a $71,000 maiden special weight on the turf for 2-year-old fillies and a $73,000 optional-claiming race for 2-year-old fillies.