Essential Quality draws post 4 in nine-horse Blue Grass Stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Essential Quality has been assigned post 4 as the heavy favorite in a field of nine 3-year-olds in the Grade 2, $800,000 Blue Grass Stakes, to be run Saturday at Keeneland for the 97th time.

Luis Saez will be back aboard Essential Quality when the gray colt makes his final start leading to the May 1 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Essential Quality had his final pre-race work Saturday at Fair Grounds, a five-furlong breeze in 1:00.40, prior to arriving Monday at Keeneland. He was out for an easy gallop Tuesday morning.

“He breezed really well before leaving out of New Orleans and he’s settled in nice already,” said trainer Brad Cox. “We know he likes the track at Keeneland.”

Bred and owned by Godolphin, Essential Quality won the Breeders’ Futurity and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile here last fall when earning a divisional Eclipse Award. The Tapit colt is unbeaten in four races, with his only start at 3 resulting in a 4 1/4-length triumph in the Feb. 27 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

From the rail out, and with jockeys, this is the field for the 1 1/8-mile Blue Grass: Hidden Stash, Rafael Bejarano; Untreated, Joel Rosario; Highly Motivated, Javier Castellano; Essential Quality, Luis Saez; Rombauer, Florent Geroux; Leblon, Albin Jimenez; Hush of a Storm, Santiago Gonzalez; Sittin On Go, Corey Lanerie; and Keepmeinmind, David Cohen.

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Among the notable opposition to Essential Quality are Highly Motivated, trained by Chad Brown, and Keepmeinmind, winner of the Kentucky Jockey Club last fall for Robertino Diodoro.

Tarantino had been expected to enter, but trainer Rudy Brisset said Tuesday he “didn’t like the way he was moving this morning . . . horse first and no reason to push it.”

The Blue Grass is the last of six graded stakes, and the last of 11 races overall, on a sensational Saturday card that starts at 1:05 p.m. Eastern. Post time is 6:38, with the Blue Grass being part of a two-hour NBCSN broadcast (5:30-7:30) to also include the Wood Memorial and Santa Anita Derby. The local weather forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 61.

The Blue Grass offers Kentucky Derby qualifying points on a 100-40-20-10 scale. The last Derby winner to compete in the Blue Grass was Street Sense (2007), while the last Blue Grass winner to also capture the Derby was Strike the Gold (1991).

The other Saturday stakes are the Grade 1 Ashland, Grade 1 Madison, Grade 2 Appalachian, Grade 2 Shakertown, and Grade 3 Commonwealth.

The 15-day spring meet opens Friday. The track is dark Sunday because of the Easter holiday.

Malathaat tops Ashland field

Another unbeaten, Malathaat, will make her seasonal debut when facing five other fillies in the 84th running of the Ashland, a 1 1/16-mile race offering qualifying points on a 100-40-20-10 scale toward the April 30 Kentucky Oaks.

In order, this is the Ashland field: Curlin’s Catch, Chris Landeros; Pass the Champagne, Castellano; Simply Ravishing, Saez; Moon Swag, Adam Beschizza; Malathaat, Rosario; and Will’s Secret, Jon Court.