The Madison Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland is a Grade 1 race in search of Grade 1 winners. Among the eight fillies and mares entered to run seven furlongs, only Clicquot has notched a Grade 1 victory, and hers came last September in the Cotillion, an age-restricted route race. The morning line sets Clicquot as the 6-1 sixth choice, while Ragtime, who missed by a neck last summer at Saratoga going seven furlongs in the age-restricted Grade 1 Test, is the 5-1 fifth choice, far longer than her Bill Mott-trained stablemate Grand Job, the 2-1 morning line favorite in the $650,000 Madison. Grand Job has run fast, but what she has not done is run in a Grade 1. After starting her career as an Irish turf horse, she crossed the Atlantic, joined Mott’s stable in 2024, and found her calling as a dirt horse. Grand Job has won four of her five one-turn races by a combined 22 lengths, the lone blemishes on her American record a solid second going two turns 14 months ago in the Royal Delta and a total no-show last fall at Churchill Downs. There, in a high-level allowance race, Grand Job contested a strong pace before fading in midstretch, defeated by 10 lengths as the 4-5 favorite in her first start following an extended layoff. At Churchill, Grand Job broke from the rail and set a pressured inside pace, and this mare seems to want to race outside and in the clear, as she did claiming the Grade 2 Inside Information on Jan. 22 at Gulfstream Park, her most recent start and first after the Churchill debacle. :: Keeneland Spring Meet! Get DRF Past Performances, picks, news, and more. She’s just an aggressive horse. In her final Madison work, on March 27, a hard-held Grand Job looked like she wanted to run a hole in the wind, that despite working alone, no other horse anywhere on the track, at quiet Payson Park. Things could turn tricky on Grand Job for Junior Alvarado, Mott’s top jockey and Ragtime’s rider in all her races. Grand Job breaks from post 5, but the mare just outside her, R Disaster, probably has more speed than Grand Job. R Disaster’s stablemate, the Saffie Joseph-trained Mystic Lake, breaks from post 8. She also has speed – not quite as much as R Disaster, Joseph believes – and figures to race close enough to keep Alvarado from taking back a bit and getting outside. A speed duel would suit Ragtime, the mount of John Velazquez and a one-run closing sprinter who might not truly get even a mile. Ragtime exploded onto the scene at Saratoga last summer, winning a maiden and a first-level allowance before missing by a neck in the Test. But even winning the Dogwood in September at Churchill and finishing a competitive third in the Raven Run at Keeneland, Ragtime looked like she had gone slightly beyond her best. Her best in 2026 might come in her next start, not this one. R Disaster, the 3-1 second choice, is a 5-year-old with 14 starts, but she only became her best self late last summer. Joseph points to the Gallant Bloom at Aqueduct on Sept. 25 as a breakthrough. “She went to a different level,” Joseph said. “She was always a horse who was running well, doing better gradually, but that was the race she became a different horse.” What changed? Training methods. Joseph said R Disaster can get too keen in her daily exercise. At Saratoga last summer, Joseph started going lighter and taking R Disaster to a little-used training track. There’s a similar spot at Palm Meadows, where the mare was based this winter, Joseph said. More relaxed mornings have yielded big afternoon performances. R Disaster lost the Dream Supreme last November on a bad trip and in her 2026 debut jogged home in the Hurricane Bertie. R Disaster’s best races came over 6 1/2 furlongs, but Joseph said seven furlongs poses no obstacle. While Clicquot’s Grade 1 came around two turns, she romped in her second race going seven furlongs and184 feet at Keeneland, and trainer Brendan Walsh wonders if Clicquot, working smartly for her first start since finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, might not prove a better one-turn horse. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. “Believe me, she’s never lacked speed, so we figured this would be a good spot to start her year,” Walsh said. “It would open a lot of doors if she proves she can run one turn.” Trainer Brad Cox rues running Eclatant at all last spring. The horse wasn’t quite herself, and it showed on the racetrack. Eclatant didn’t run at all between May and February. In her allowance comeback Feb. 22, she won comfortably with a field-best 104 Beyer Speed Figure. “I’m not sure what to make of that figure,” Cox said. “I expected her to run well off the layoff, and she did, but I wasn’t expecting quite that big a number.” Praying and Sterling Silver look improbable. The other six hit varying levels of very good. They might lack Grade 1 credentials, but the Madison – in this division, this year – feels like a real Grade 1. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.