Fields taking shape for Stephen Foster card

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With another Triple Crown in the books, the unofficial second half of the racing season will get under way next Saturday night when a pair of Win and You’re In races toward the 2019 Breeders’ Cup are run under the lights at Churchill Downs.

The Stephen Foster and Fleur de Lis – both former handicap races now being run under allowance conditions – are among five graded stakes that will shift attention toward the Nov. 1-2 Breeders’ Cup.

The Grade 2, $600,000 Foster is shaping up with a competitive field headed by Seeking the Soul, an earner of nearly $3 million for owner Charles Fipke and trainer Dallas Stewart. At least seven older horses are expected for the 1 1/8-mile race, with the others being Alkhaatam, King Zachary, Quip, Thirstforlife, Tom’s d’Etat, Yoshida, and possibly Tenfold.

Tenfold won the May 17 Pimlico Special for Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen.

“We’re monitoring his energy level and keeping an eye on who else is showing up,” said Winchell racing manager David Fiske.

The Foster is a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 2 BC Classic. This will be its first running since it was downgraded from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2 by the American Graded Stakes Committee. It had been a Grade 1 since 2002.

The traditional presentation of engraved Kentucky Derby trophies to the connections of 2019 winner Country House will be held between races Saturday on the final Downs After Dark program of the spring meet. Bill Mott, the trainer of Country House, is expected in from his New York base to saddle major contenders Yoshida for the Foster and Elate for the Fleur de Lis.

Entries for Saturday will be drawn Wednesday. In those other stakes:

Grade 2, $250,000 Fleur de Lis: Elate, seeking her first victory since the Delaware Handicap last July, will be favored in what looks like one of the best renewals in years of this 1 1/8-mile race. Other fillies and mares likely to run include Blue Prize, Go Google Yourself, Red Ruby, She’s a Julie, and Skeptic.

The Fleur de Lis is a Win and You’re In toward the Nov. 2 BC Distaff.

Grade 2, $250,000 Wise Dan: The 2018 winner Mr. Misunderstood will be making his 5-year-old debut in this 1 1/16-mile turf race when he faces Admission Office, Bourbon Resolution, First Premio, Parlor, Siem Riep, and probably a few more older horses.

Grade 3, $150,000 Matt Winn: Mr. Money will make his first start since a 5 1/4-length romp in the Pat Day Mile and is likely to oppose a handful of other 3-year-olds, most notably Knicks Go and Signalman.

Grade 3, $150,000 Regret: Eight or nine 3-year-old fillies are expected for this 1 1/8-mile turf race, with field size partly dependent on whether some races this weekend are rained off the grass. Probables include Winter Sunset and Fortunate Girl.

Allowances end the week

A four-day race week at Churchill will come to an end Sunday with back-to-back allowances anchoring a 10-race card.

Race 8 is a $99,000 second-level race in which True Dream runs back under the same conditions for which she won a May 12 race by 5 3/4 lengths. True Dream, trained by Kenny McPeek, remains eligible because she was entered that day for an optional-claiming tag. Her chief threats among five other fillies and mares in this 1 1/16-mile race include High Regard, Whispering Speaker, and Area.

Race 9 is a $97,000 first-level turf mile that drew an oversubscribed field of 3-year-olds. Top contenders in the body of the race include a trio representing the local strings of Southern California trainers – Originaire and Avigale for Jeff Mullins and Red Island for Phil D’Amato. In all, 16 horses are on the program, but only as many as 10 can start.

All listed purses include sizable bonuses for horses registered to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

First post is 12:45 p.m. Eastern. After Sunday, Churchill goes dark for three days before another four-day week begins Thursday.

◗ Joe Woodard, the former perennial leading trainer at Belterra Park (when it was still River Downs), was represented by his first starter since February 2017 when Chief Know It All finished eighth in the sixth race Thursday. Woodard, based at the Skylight training center, sent out a Churchill-record 10 straight winners at the 2005 spring meet.

◗ Apprentice rider Declan Carroll returned from a three-month layoff when he rode Gambit to a fourth-place finish in the fifth race Thursday. Carroll, 19, had been sidelined after suffering a fractured vertebra in a March 9 spill at Fair Grounds.

◗ Turfway Park in northern Kentucky was closed for simulcasting through this weekend because of damage incurred in a storm Wednesday night. Track officials were hoping to reopen the facility next week. Turfway will next conduct live racing in early December.

◗ A memorial service for Lee “Spec” Alexander is scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday at Southland Christian Church in Nicholasville, Ky., with visitation set for 4-8 p.m. Monday. Alexander, the longtime Keeneland starter, died June 3 at age 80.