LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The newly installed grass course at Churchill Downs played to rave reviews when the spring meet opened Saturday night with two allowances contested over it. Kentucky Derby week will unfold with more action on the $10 million course, including a pair of Thursday co-features, the Opening Verse and Unbridled Sidney. The seven-furlong turf course “is in really good shape,” said jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who won the first race over it when Stitched led wire-to-wire in the fourth race Saturday. “It’s playing a little quick, but that’s to be expected with a new course. It’s going to be really nice.” An 11-race card dubbed “Thurby” starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. The $160,000 Opening Verse (race 8, 4:37) and $200,000 Unbridled Sidney (race 10, 5:45) sandwich the first stakes for 2-year-olds on the circuit this year, the $200,000 Kentucky Juvenile (race 9, 5:11). Purses for all three include bonuses restricted to registered Kentucky-breds, as do all other non-claiming/starter races in Kentucky. A 50 percent chance of rain and a high of 77 are in the Thursday forecast. First post Friday (13 races) and Saturday (14 races) is 10:30 a.m. Opening Verse Set Piece showed a great affinity for the old turf course at Churchill, winning four of five starts over it, “but you don’t know if he’ll like the new one,” said trainer Brad Cox. :: Get Kentucky Derby Betting Strategies for exclusive wager recommendations, contender profiles, pedigree analysis, and more “You’d sure hope so,” he said. Set Piece, with Florent Geroux riding from post 6, is a deserving favorite in the 17th Opening Verse, a one-mile race that drew a full gate of 12 older horses. The 6-year-old British-bred gelding returns less than three weeks after earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure at Keeneland in the April 15 Maker’s Mark Mile, a Grade 1 race that marked the first start in nearly seven months for the Juddmonte Farms homebred. Set Piece was seventh, beaten just two lengths for all the money, in a very crowded finish. “He didn’t really get covered up the way we’d prefer,” said Cox, “and being as fresh as he was, he was pulling pretty hard, which took away from his stretch kick. He came out of it great, and he’d been doing really well going into it. He had a really nice work over the turf [Sunday], just cruised around there, so we ought to be all set.” Mr Dumas (post 5, Reylu Gutierrez) held a similar fondness for the old course, winning three of five, and he’s among the more capable opponents Set Piece will face. Trained by John Ortiz, who will have his first Derby starter Saturday with Barber Road, the 6-year-old horse is back in peak form, having finished first or second in his last four starts. Other contenders in the Opening Verse, named for the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner at Churchill, include the speedy Gray’s Fable (post 9, Luis Saez), who surely needed his last race in the Grade 3 Appleton at Gulfstream Park, and Beatbox (post 2, Flavien Prat), who has had just one turf start but excelled over Tapeta at Turfway Park over the winter. Unbridled Sidney Several of the more accomplished filly-mare turf sprinters on the continent are in the Unbridled Sidney, a 5 1/2-furlong dash that drew a field of nine. :: For the first time ever, our premium past performances are free! Get free Formulator now! Change of Control (post 5, Colby Hernandez), three for four on the old course, sports a field-high bankroll of $770,775 and returns to familiar surroundings. Trained by Michelle Lovell, the 6-year-old mare figures among a core of lukewarm favorites as the winner of four stakes within her last 10 starts, including the Grade 3 Intercontinental last summer at Belmont Park and the Grade 3 Franklin County last fall at Keeneland. Brooke Marie (post 2, Luis Saez) and Tobys Heart (post 8, Jose Ortiz), both coming out of the Grade 2 Monrovia at Santa Anita last month, are other top contenders. Brooke Marie, a 6-year-old Lemon Drop Kid mare, was the winner of that 6 1/2-furlong race down the hill, while Tobys Heart, a three-time stakes winner from 11 starts, was third as the favorite. Brooke Marie “came back from California in good shape with that Grade 2 under her belt now,” said her trainer, Eddie Kenneally. “This is in our backyard, so it’s the next logical step for her. We do intend to race her all year.” In Good Spirits and Bullseye Beauty are other considerations in an interesting group. The Unbridled Sidney is named for the five-time stakes winner who set the five-furlong course record of 55.54 seconds (since lowered) in 2005 for Ronny Werner.